MIND  and 


- 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA, 

LIBRARY, 

(LOS  ANGELES,  CALIF. 


THE  RURAL  MIND  AND 
SOCIAL  WELFARE 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 
CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


THE  BAKER  &  TAYLOR  COMPANY 


THE  CAMBRIDGE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

LONDON 

THE  MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA 

TOKYO,  OSAKA,    KYOTO,   rUKUOKA,  SENCAI 

THE  MISSION  BOOK  COMPANY 
B1BMUI 


THE  RURAL  MIND  AND 
SOCIAL  WELFARE 


By  ERNEST  R.  GROVES 

Author  of  Uiing  the  Resources  of  the  Country 
Church,  Rural  Problems  of  Today,  etc. 

With  Foreword 
By  KENYON  L.  BUTTERFIELD 

President  of  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College 


47692 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 
CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


COPYRIGHT  1922  BY 
THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO 


All  Rights  Reserved 


Published  June  1922 


Composed  and  Printed  By 

The  University  o!  Chicago  Press 

Chicago,  Illinois,  U.S.A. 


A- 


TO 
CATHERINE,   ERNESTINE,   AND  RUTH 


PREFACE 

The  supreme  need  of  our  time  is  social  sanity. 
Civilization  has  been  shaken  until  at  every  point 
there  are  evidences  of  our  social  insecurity.  Herd- 
suggestion  was  never  more  powerful  nor  more 
menacing.  The  ever-increasing  drift  of  people 
to  the  cities  provides,  as  the  social  psycholo- 
gists, McDougall  and  Trotter,  have  pointed  out, 
the  ideal  breeding-conditions  for  that  crowd- 
suggestibility  which  more  than  anything  else  may 
endanger  our  convalescing  civilization. 

Those  who  call  attention  to  the  social  risk 
involved  in  this  movement  of  population  to  the 
cities  assume  that  people  who  live  in  the  country 
contribute  to  our  national  life  influences  of  sub- 
stantial social  worth.  The  character  of  urban 
experience  has  been  well  analyzed  and  its  social 
value  is  generally  recognized.  This  book  attempts 
to  analyze  in  detail  the  rural  social  mind  for  the 
purpose  of  emphasizing  its  significance  in  our 
national  life.  Rural  people  have  a  greater  social 
function  than  merely  to  grow  food  for  city  dwellers. 
They  also  contribute  to  modern  society  attitudes 
of  mind  of  indispensable  value.  Not  that  country 
people  are  inherently  different  from  city  people. 
Living  in  a  different  environment  they  naturally 


viii  PREFACE 

develop  characteristic  habits  of  mind.  National 
welfare  needs  their  social  influence,  and  for  that 
reason  the  problem  of  rural  prosperity  is  a  matter 
of  concern  to  all  our  people.  Fortunately  this 
fact  is  beginning  to  be  recognized  by  all  thoughtful 
leaders  of  public  policies.  The  increasing  atten- 
tion which  everywhere  in  the  United  States  is 
being  given  to  rural  matters  is  based  upon  neither 
sentimental  nor  class  interests.  It  does  not 
represent  selfish  sectionalism.  Rural  welfare,  on 
the  contrary,  is  of  national  concern  because  it 
influences  for  good  the  country  as  a  whole.  The 
psychic  contribution  of  the  farming  population 
is  indispensable  in  our  social  life,  for  it  provides 
mental  qualities  which  urban  people  largely  lack. 
As  out  civilization  grows  more  urban  we  need 
all  the  more  to  appreciate  the  social  value  of 
rural  experience. 

ERNEST  R.  GROVES 

BOSTON  UNIVERSITY 
BOSTON,  MASSACHUSETTS 


CONTENTS 

FOREWORD 

I.  INTRODUCTION 

The  Psychological  Era.  Significance  of  the 
Instincts.  Importance  of  Social  Psychology. 
New  Interest  in  Rural  Psychology.  Problem 
of  Rural  Psychology. 

II.  THE  SOCIAL  CONTRIBUTION  OF  PRIMITIVE  AGRI- 
CULTURE       

Social  Influence  of  Agriculture.  The  Beginning 
of  Agriculture.  Savage  Agriculture.  Condi- 
tions of  Agricultural  Civilization.  Mental 
Results  of  Agricultural  Mode  of  Life. 

III.  CITY  DRIFT 

Complex  Causes  of  City  Drift.     World-wide 
Character  of  City  Drift.     City  Drift  in  the 
United  States.    Rural  Depletion.    Decrease  in 
Rural  Leadership  Material.     Social  Advantages 
of  Balancing  Rural  and  Urban  Populations. 

IV.  COUNTRY  LIFE  AND  THE  HERD  INSTINCT  . 
Social   Appeal    of    the    Urban    Environment. 
Strength    of    the    Gregarious    Instinct.     Un- 
natural Growth  of  Cities.    Effect  of  the  Great 
War    upon     the    Gregarious    Instinct.     City 
Dictatorship  and  Prestige.    Influence  of  Gre- 
garious Tendencies  upon  Policies  of  Govern- 
ment.   Danger  to  Individualism.     Significance 
of  Suggestion.     Craving  for  Intense  Stimula- 
tion of  Gregarious  Life.    Rural  Reform  and  the 
Gregarious  Instinct. 


PAGE 

xiii 


44 


x  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

V.  THE  INSTINCT  OF  SELF-ASSERTION  .  .  .  67 
Self-Assertion  and  Social  Evolution.  Self- 
Assertion  and  Its  Neurotic  Expression.  Theory 
of  Adler.  Self-Assertion  in  the  Urban  Environ- 
ment. Class  Struggle  and  Class  Consciousness. 
Competitive  Types  in  the  Country.  Village 
Prestige.  Value  of  Rivalry  in  the  Country. 
Self-Assertion  and  Rural  Organization.  Rural 
Welfare  Demands  Adequate  Self-Expression  for 
Farmers. 

VI.  THE  PARENTAL  AND  THE  SEX  INSTINCTS  .  .  86 
Parental  Instinct  and  Social  Organization. 
McDougall's  Description.  The  Rural  Family. 
Family  Ambition  and  Rural  Progress.  Com- 
radeship of  the  Rural  Family.  Competition 
between  Rural  Families.  Pity  in  the  Country. 
Influence  of  Sex  upon  Rural  Social  Conditions. 
Necessary  Contact  with  Sex.  Difference 
between  Rural  Communities  in  Regard  to  Sex 
Standards.  The  Rural  Housekeeper  Problem. 
Sex  Sublimation  in  the  Country. 

VII.  FEAR 108 

Description  of  Fear.  Fear  in  Primitive  and 
Animal  Life.  Fear  and  Childhood.  Rural 
Superstitions  and  the  Child.  Fear  as  Motive. 
Fear  and  Rural  Organization.  Fear  and 
Isolation.  Fear  and  Tragedies.  Fear  and 
Rural  Consciousness. 

VIII.  PUGNACITY,  CURIOSITY,  WORKMANSHIP,  ACQUI- 
SITION   127 

Rural  Opportunities  for  Pugnacity.  Patho- 
logical Quarrels  in  the  Country.  Curiosity  and 
Isolation.  Gossip.  Curiosity  and  Agricultural 
Progress.  Vigor  of  Instinct  of  Workmanship. 


CONTENTS  xi 

PAGE 

Transitory  Products  of  the  Country.  Com- 
munity Spirit  and  Workmanship.  Miser.  Land 
Hunger.  The  Farmer  and  Property  Rights. 

IX.  PLAY 144 

Nature  of  Play.  Play  and  Democracy.  Play 
and  Co-operation.  Too  Little  Recreation  in 
the  Country.  Social  Risk  of  Denying  Recrea- 
tion. New  Policy  of  Rural  Church  regarding 
Recreation.  Inherent  Limitations  of  the  Rural 
Environment.  The  Problems  of  Recreational 
Policy.  Rural  Reading.  Need  of  a  Progres- 
sive Rural  Library.  The  Farm  Journals.  The 
Daily  Newspaper  and  the  Rural  Mind. 

X.  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH  AND  THE  RURAL  MIND  164 
Social  Importance  of  the  Country  Church. 
Difficulties  of  the  Rural  Pastor.  Causal  Char- 
acter of  Rural  Experience.  The  Church  and 
Childhood.  The  Rural  Church  and  Rural 
Resources.  The  Social  Character  of  the  Pro- 
gram of  the  Country  Church.  The  Social 
Responsibilities  of  the  Rural  Church. 

XI.  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  RURAL  ORGANIZATION  .  181 
Psychology  the  Basis  of  Organization.  The 
Beginning  of  a  Rural  Psychology.  Organiza- 
tion in  Its  Relation  to  Gregariousness.  The 
Strategy  of  Rural  Organization.  The  Local 
Leader  and  Problems  of  Community  Organiza- 
tion. Fear  and  Lack  of  Rural  Organization. 
The  Community  Expression  of  the  Instinct  of 
Possession.  Rural  Organization  and  the  Family. 
Organization  and  Rural  Advancement.  The 
Duplication  of  Rural  Organizations. 
INDEX 203 


FOREWORD 

When  new  enterprises  on  behalf  of  rural  devel- 
opment are  under  consideration  there  are  always 
those  who  remark  that  "farmers  are  no  different 
from  other  people."  This  is  one  of  those  half- 
truths  harmful  chiefly  because  they  form  excuses 
for  delaying  progressive  measures.  Sometimes  this 
particular  error  prevents  the  inauguration  of  ade- 
quate courses  of  study  in  agricultural  schools  and 
agricultural  colleges.  Sometimes  it  stands  in  the 
way  of  proper  adaptation  of  a  church  program 
or  a  school  curriculum  to  the  needs  of  the  country- 
side. 

For  the  fact  is  that  the  farmers  are  different. 
They  are  not  peculiar  nor  unique  nor  inferior. 
They  are  just  different.  They  live  under  differ- 
ent conditions  from  city  people ;  they  think  in  dif- 
ferent terms;  they  breathe  a  different  atmosphere; 
they  handle  their  affairs  differently — perhaps  be- 
cause they  have  different  affairs  to  handle. 

This  difference  is  not  a  difference  in  essential 
human  qualities  but  merely  the  effect  of  environ- 
ment upon  inherent  traits.  Farmers  are  quite  like 
other  people  in  their  fundamental  instincts;  but 
these  instincts  discharge  through  different  channels 
from  those  that  exist  in  the  crowded  city  and 


xiv  FOREWORD 

hence  bring  oftentimes  different  results,  so  different 
as  to  produce  the  "rural  mind." 

In  this  book  Professor  Groves  has  indicated  just 
what  happens  and  why  it  happens.  A  scholar 
familiar  with  modern  sociology,  trained  in  psy- 
chology, a  student  of  first-hand  material  in  the 
rural  field,  for  a  long  time  teacher  in  an  agricul- 
tural college,  the  author  is  eminently  fitted  to  deal 
with  this  particular  problem.  He  has  given  us  a 
book  at  once  scholarly  and  practical.  Scholarly 
because  it  reaches  down  to  grasp  the  best  in  social 
science;  and  practical  because  it  gives  validity  to 
certain  methods  of  rural  organization  and  develop- 
ment. It  is  eminently  a  book  for  all  rural  leaders 
to  read  and  to  ponder. 

KENYON  L.  BUTTERFIELD 


INTRODUCTION 

This  book  is  an  analysis  of  the  social  experiences 
of  country  people.  It  attempts  to  bring  together 
such  psychological  knowledge  as  at  the  present 
time  is  likely  to  prove  useful  in  an  understanding 
of  the  problems  of  rural  life.  It  especially  draws 
material  from  the  rapidly  developing  social  psy- 
chology. Although  in  the  process  of  being  made, 
social  psychology  already  has  established  regard- 
ing the  conduct  of  men  and  women  facts  and  prin- 
ciples of  great  value  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
rural  environment. 

The  importance  of  the  psychic  side  of  country 
life  fortunately  no  longer  needs  defense.  The  time 
was  that  scant  attention  was  given  to  the  mental 
elements  in  the  rural  environment  even  by  leaders 
in  country-life  interests.  Within  the  last  ten  years, 
however,  in  harmony  with  the  increased  emphasis 
that  has  been  placed  upon  the  psychological  in 
every  realm  of  life,  students  of  rural  affairs  have 
been  more  and  more  concerned  with  the  mental 
factors  operating  in  rural  society. 

This  is  indeed  the  psychological  era.  We  are 
all  conscious  of  the  large  place  in  our  social  life 
given  to  the  mental  sciences.  Every  event  has 


2  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

its  psychological  element.  Psychic  interpretation 
is  never  absent  from  any  analysis  of  social  phe- 
nomena. In  our  period  psychological  discussion 
holds  the  prominent  place  that  formerly  was  occu- 
pied by  biological  science.  Just  as  Darwin  and 
his  followers  by  their  advancement  of  zoological 
science  forced  thinking  people  everywhere  to  give 
to  evolution  and  its  allied  problems  the  central 
place  in  thought,  so  of  late  the  valuable  contribu- 
tions made  by  men  working  on  psychological 
problems  in  the  various  fields  of  the  science  have 
enabled  us  to  see  in  a  new  and  inviting  way  the 
enormous  place  in  human  society  filled  by  the 
activities  of  the  mind.  It  is  being  generally 
recognized  that  a  new  mine  has  been  discovered 
rich  with  material  of  greatest  value  for  the  under- 
standing of  social  experience.  There  is  indeed  a 
widespread  conviction  that  it  is  folly  to  attempt 
any  interpretation  of  man's  social  behavior  unless 
we  first  of  all  do  justice  to  the  psychological 
influences  which  permeate  it  at  every  point. 

Social  psychology  has  especially  stressed  the 
instincts.  Until  recently  they  were  relatively 
neglected  because  the  instinctive  character  of  man's 
social  life  was  obscured  by  the  fact  that  the  human 
instincts  express  themselves  in  such  complicated 
reactions  as  compared  with  the  more  simple  behav- 
ior of  the  animal.  Instincts  furnish  the  basic  raw 
material  for  man's  social  actions,  but  this  is  worked 


INTRODUCTION  3 

upon  by  experience  and  appears  largely  in  the  form 
of  social  habits.  The  primary  place  instincts  hold 
in  the  social  activities  and  desires  of  man  is  author- 
itatively expressed  in  these  words: 

The  equipment  of  instincts  with  which  a  human  being 
is  at  birth  endowed  must  be  considered  in  two  ways.  It 
consists,  in  the  first  place,  of  definite  and  unlearned 
mechanisms  of  behavior,  fixed  original  responses  to  given 
stimuli.  These  are,  at  the  same  time,  the  original  driving 
forces  of  action.  An  instinct  is  at  once  an  unlearned 
mechanism  for  making  a  response  and  an  unlearned  tendency 
to  make  it.  That  is,  given  certain  situations,  human  beings 
do  not  simply  utilize  inborn  reactions,  but  exhibit  inborn 
drives  or  desires  to  make  those  reactions.  There  is  thus 
an  identity  in  man's  native  endowment  between  what  he 
can  do  and  what  he  wants  to  do.  Instincts  must  thus  be 
regarded  as  both  native  capacities  and  native  desires. 

•  Instincts  define,  therefore,  not  only  what  men  can  do, 
but  what  they  want  to  do.  They  are  at  once  the  primary 
instruments  and  the  primary  provocatives  to  action.  As 
we  shall  presently  see  in  some  detail,  human  beings  may 
acquire  mechanisms  of  behavior  with  which  they  are  not 
at  birth  endowed.  These  acquired  mechanisms  of  response 
are  called  habits.  And  with  the  acquisition  of  new 
responses,  new  motives  or  tendencies  to  action  are  estab- 
lished. Having  learned  how  to  do  a  certain  thing,  indi- 
viduals at  the  same  time  learn  to  want  to  do  it.  But  just 
as  all  acquired  mechanisms  of  behavior  are  modifications 
of  some  original  instinctive  response,  so  all  desires,  interests, 
and  ideals  are  derivatives  of  such  original  impulses  as  fear, 
curiosity,  self-assertion,  and  sex.  All  human  motives  can 
be  traced  back  to  these  primary  inborn  impulses  to  make 
these  primary  inborn  responses.1 

1 1.  Edman,  Human  Traits  and  Their  Social  Significance, 
pp. 18-19. 


4  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

Although  psychologists  recognize  the  funda- 
mental significance  of  man's  instinctive  behavior 
they  do  not  at  present  agree  in  their  classification 
of  the  human  instincts.  Some  regard  man  as  pos- 
sessing two  only — hunger  and  sex — while  others 
distinguish  twenty  times  as  many.  This  difference 
of  opinion  in  no  way  lessens  the  importance  of 
man's  instinctive  behavior  as  it  appears  in  his 
social  life.  The  characteristic  impulsive  activities 
of  the  adult  may  represent  indeed  not  a  pure 
instinctive  reaction  but  a  more  complicated  com- 
posite of  instinct  and  habit,  which  on  that  account 
is  no  less  strong  or  automatic.  One  of  our  most 
skilled  investigators  states  this  fact  as  follows: 

We  are  inclined  to  take  the  point  of  view  here  also  that 
most  of  these  asserted  instincts  are  really  consolidations  of 
instinct  and  habit.  In  certain  of  them,  such  as  manipula- 
tion, the  original  activities  predominate.  In  certain  others, 
e.g.,  adornment,  hunting,  habitation,  etc.,  the  pattern  as  a 
whole  is  largely  composed  of  habit  elements.  It  should 
again  be  reiterated  here  that  so  far  as  the  functioning 
and  value  of  these  attitudes  to  the  organism,  so  far  as 
the  role  they  play  in  daily  life,  so  far  as  their  back- 
ward and  forward  reference  in  the  life  history  of  the 
individual  are  concerned,  it  makes  not  a  whit's  difference 
what  factors  these  capacities  are  analyzable  into.  The 
geneticist  is  likely  to  overemphasize  the  number  of  original 
tendencies;  the  psycho-analyst,  to  underestimate  them. 
He  reduces  instincts  almost  as  a  class  to  a  few  stereotyped 
factors  connected  with  the  (from  his  standpoint,  funda- 
mental) sex  phenomena.  The  fact  of  the  matter  seems  to 


be  that  in  most  cases  there  is  no  need  of  detailed  analysis 
of  these  attitudes.  Those  that  we  have  cited  and  many 
others  function  as  wholes  in  the  daily  lives  of  all  indi- 
viduals. They  are  as  potent  and  real  as  if  they  were 
inborn  and  began  to  function  in  earliest  infancy  with  all 
the  completeness  they  exhibit  in  adult  life.1 

It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  such  a  revolution- 
ary movement  as  is  represented  by  present  social 
psychology  would  be  welcomed  with  open  arms  by 
all  those  who  feel  themselves  coming  under  the 
dominant  interpretation  of  a  vigorous  science.  In 
spite  of  our  appreciation  of  the  increasing  impor- 
tance of  psychology,  there  are  few  who  do  not  sense 
a  degree  of  protest  against  the  new  interpreter  of 
life.  This  inward  irritation  with  respect  to  psycho- 
logical explanation,  of  which  there  is  evidence  in 
every  quarter,  is  another  demonstration  of  the  large 
place  psychology  now  holds  in  the  analysis  of  social 
life. 

The  significance  of  the  recent  progress  in  psy- 
chology consists  in  the  fact  that  the  frontier  of 
causal  science  has  once  again  been  advanced.  In 
the  realm  where  causal  explanation  has  been  most 
uncertain  and  least  satisfactory  we  are  beginning 
to  have  an  understanding  of  the  laws  governing 
mental  experience.  It  is  clear  that  the  establish- 
ment of  laws  that  explain  conduct  must  have  a 
very  important  influence  upon  the  social  life  of  the 

1  John  B.  Watson,  Psychology  from  the  Standpoint  of  a 
Behaviorist,  pp.  261-62. 


6  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

future.  Another  step  has  been  taken  by  man  in 
his  long  historic  effort  to  control  for  his  own  wel- 
fare the  social  environment  in  which  his  life  moves 
and  has  its  being.  Although  there  may  be  exag- 
geration with  reference  to  the  certainties  of  our 
knowledge  regarding  mental  behavior,  and  defense- 
less dogmatism  on  the  part  of  some,  there  can  be 
no  question  that  the  science  is  making  rapid 
headway. 

Psychology  has  invaded  practically  every  field 
of  human  endeavor,  yet  no  contribution  coming 
from  the  science  is  of  greater  significance  than  that 
which  is  brought  under  the  term  social  psychology. 
The  former  philosophical  attempts  at  psychological 
interpretation  with  their  individualistic  point  of 
view  have  been  swept  aside,  and  the  entire  science 
has  come  to  look  upon  the  individual  as  under- 
standable only  in  his  social  relations.  Social  psy- 
chology, in  a  special  way  not  possible  to  other 
branches  of  the  science,  has  undertaken  the  inter- 
preting and  systematizing  of  the  behavior  of  men 
and  women. 

In  so  far  as  social  psychology  has  attempted  to 
deal  with  concrete  social  problems  it  has  devoted 
itself  thus  far  almost  exclusively  to  the  urban  field. 
This  was  inevitable.  Urban  problems  have  the 
center  of  the  stage.  Urban  life  is  spectacular  and 
dominating.  Modern  life  exaggerates  urban  inter- 
ests. Industry,  which  furnishes  such  a  quantity  of 


INTRODUCTION  7 

problems  for  psychological  analysis,  thrives  in 
urban  centers.  We  have  as  a  result  of  these 
conditions  an  ever-increasing  fund  of  knowledge, 
brought  together  by  psychology  in  recent  years, 
which  is  of  the  utmost  value  in  understanding 
urban  society. 

The  same  influences  that  have  given  emphasis 
to  urban  matters  have  tended  to  hold  rural  experi- 
ences in  the  background.  There  is  no  rural 
psychology  comparable  to  our  urban  psychology. 
This,  however,  is  not  because  country  life  is 
destitute  of  problems  or  material  for  analysis,  but 
merely  because  the  science  has  relatively  ignored 
the  rural  environment.  For  many  reasons  there 
has  recently  come  to  be  an  increased  emphasis  on 
rural  welfare.  From  various  motives  and  from 
many  sources,  men  and  women  have  seriously  con- 
sidered the  needs  of  country  folk.  The  prosperity 
and  cultural  attainment  of  country  people  is  of 
such  tremendous  social  significance  that  there  is 
bound  to  be  an  increasing  attention  devoted  to 
rural  problems.  In  order  that  satisfactory  progress 
can  be  made  by  rural  sociology  and  rural  economics, 
and  especially  by  rural  organization,  there  must  be 
a  rural  psychology  able  to  bring  to  the  rural  worker 
the  same  assistance  the  urban  worker  gets  from 
the  science.  There  is  evidence  that  this  fact  is 
already  recognized.  Radical  changes  of  thought 
with  reference  to  the  character  of  rural-life  prob- 


8  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

lems  have  recently  shown  themselves  in  new  and 
broader  policies  on  the  part  of  those  interested  in 
<"  rural  welfare. 

Those  who  have  undertaken  responsibilities 
with  reference  to  the  economic  and  social  well- 
being  of  the  country  are  already  recognizing  that 
a  rural  psychology  is  seriously  needed.  More  and 
more  the  mental  side  of  the  rural  situation  is 
receiving  attention.  We  have  traveled  a  long 
distance  from  the  position  formerly  occupied  by 
those  who  thought  our  only  problem  in  the  country 
was  to  make  the  farmer  more  skilful  in  his  produc- 
tive efforts.  Rural  statesmen  are  not  only  see- 
ing the  need  of  having  psychological  knowledge 
of  rural  problems,  but  are  also  beginning  to 
value  the  psychological  contributions  that  the 
rural  people  give  to  national  and  international 
society.  Although  the  farmer  is  not  isolated  from 
the  common  influences  of  his  time  and  place,  and 
fortunately  very  largely  shares  the  life  that  con- 
centrates in  the  city,  he  nevertheless  has  his  own 
peculiar  experiences  which  have  a  psychic  content. 
Because  of  this  he  is  able  to  bring  into  national 
consciousness  his  own  special  psychic  influences. 

Any  effort  to  construct  a  rural  psychology  must 

first  of  all  recognize  the  character  of  the  problem. 

\      Man  brings  to  his  environment  inherited  instincts 

y    which  need  to  be  adjusted  to  the  demands  placed 

upon  them  by  the  social  life  of  those  among  whom 


INTRODUCTION  9 

he  lives.  This  is  the  universal  social  problem 
present  equally  in  the  rural  and  urban  environment. 
Rural  psychology,  therefore,  must  undertake  to 
disclose  the  working  of  human  instincts  under  the 
conditions  provided  in  the  country.  Such  an 
undertaking  will  necessarily  disclose  a  consider- 
able difference  between  the  influences  of  the  open 
country,  the  village,  the  suburban,  and  the  city 
environment.  In  the  country  the  problem  of  anal- 
ysis is  least  difficult.  To  a  large  extent  the  working 
of  the  various  instincts  can  be  followed  in  detail 
and  the  environmental  influence  traced  in  the  most 
simple  environment  with  greatest  certainty. 

As  a  result  of  the  building  up  of  rural  psychol- 
ogy, material  will  be  brought  together  that  must 
considerably  influence  every  undertaking  for  rural 
welfare.  Light  will  necessarily  be  thrown  upon 
the  work  of  the  church  and  the  school  and  the 
family.  A  more  conscious  control  can  be  exercised 
over  these  fundamental  institutions  in  their  opera- 
tions within  the  field  of  instinct.  Most  of  all  the 
programs  for  rural  improvement  will  be  influenced, 
and  greater  unity  on  the  part  of  those  who  have 
at  heart  the  good  of  the  country  will  naturally 
follow.  It  is  important,  therefore,  that  psychology 
be  attracted  into  the  field  of  rural  life  and  that 
every  encouragement  be  given  the  science  in  its 
endeavor  to  build  up  a  systematic  understanding 
of  the  mental  life  of  country  people. 


IO  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

As  the  science  progresses  in  its  ability  to  enter 
the  rural  environment,  it  will  discover  that  a  great 
part  of  its  material  is  common  to  all  country 
people  the  world  over.  Fundamental  influences 
that  coerce  and  transform,  express  and  satisfy,  the 
instinctive  cravings  of  men  and  women  in  the 
country  are  neither  local  nor  national.  It  will 
follow  that  the  rural  problem  will  never  be  con- 
ceived in  narrow  terms  by  well-trained  students. 
It  will  not  even  be  confirmed  within  the  limits  of 
nationality.  When  social  psychology  can  analyze 
the  elements  common  to  all  country  people  as  a 
result  of  their  environmental  experiences,  then  we 
shall  have  a  basis  for  international  rural  policies. 
Rural  statesmanship  will  come  under  the  momen- 
tum of  a  world-viewpoint. 

REFERENCES  ON  INTRODUCTION 

The  references  have  been  selected  with  a  view  to  pro- 
viding the  reader  with  the  material  most  likely  to  prove 
useful  for  additional  study.  Although  few  of  them  treat 
the  rural  mind  specifically,  each  contributes  something  of 
value  in  its  interpretation. 
Edman,  I.,  Human  Traits  and  Their  Social  Significance, 

chap.  ii.    Boston:  Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  1920. 
Elliot,  T.  D.,  "A  Psychoanalytic  Interpretation  of  Group 

Formation    and    Behavior,"    American    Journal    of 

Sociology,  November,  1920. 
Paris,  E.,  "Are  Instincts  Data  or  Hypotheses?"  American 

Journal  of  Sociology,  September,  1921. 


INTRODUCTION  1 1 

Galpin,  C.  J.,  Rural  Life,  chap.  ii.     New  York:    Century 

Co.,  1918. 
Groves,  E.  R.,  "The  Mind  of  the  Farmer,"  Publications  of 

the  American  Sociological  Society,  II,  47-53. 
Hunter,  W.  S.,  "The  Modification  of  Instinct  from  the 

Standpoint  of  Social  Psychology,"  Psychological  Review, 

July,  1920. 
McDougall,    W.,    An   Introduction   to   Social   Psychology, 

chaps,  i,  ii,  and  iii.    Boston:  Luce  &  Co.,  1918. 
Park,  R.  E.,  and  Burgess,  E.  W.,  Introduction  to  the  Science 

of   Sociology,    pp.    73-85.     Chicago:     University    of 

Chicago  Press,  1921. 
Parmelee,   M.,   Science   of  Human   Behavior,    chap.    xiii. 

New  York:  Macmillan,  1913. 
Tansley,  A.  G.,  The  New  Psychology  and  Its  Relation  to 

Life,  chap.  xvii.    New  York:  Dodd,  Mead  &  Co.,  1920. 
Tead,  O.,  Instincts  in  Industry,  chap.  i.    Boston:  Hough  ton 

Mifflin  Co.,  1918. 
Vogt,  P.  L.,  Introduction  to  Rural  Sociology,  chap.  x.    New 

York:  Appleton,  1917. 
Watson,  J.  B.,  Psychology  from  the  Standpoint  of  a  Behav- 

iorist,  chap.  vii.     Philadelphia:  Lippincott,  1919. 
White,  W.  A.,  The  Mental  Hygiene  of  Childhood,  chap.  ii. 

Boston:  Little,  Brown  &  Co.,  1919. 


II 

THE  SOCIAL  CONTRIBUTION  OF 
PRIMITIVE  AGRICULTURE 

The  evolution  of  agriculture  reveals  social  and 
psychic  consequences  of  the  greatest  importance. 
No  discovery  has  had  such  significance  for  human 
society  as  did  the  first  planting  of  seed  for  the 
purpose  of  harvest.  Such  evidence  as  we  have  of 
the  obscure  beginning  of  agriculture  points  to  Asia 
as  its  place  of  origin.  However  simple  in  its  first 
stages  the  planting  may  have  been,  it  started 
influences  that  were  destined  to  revolutionize  man's 
mental  and  social  habits.  The  lessening  of  the 
hunter's  mind  traits  and  the  coming  of  the  farmer's 
represents  in  its  social  results  the  greatest  psychic 
epoch  in  human  culture.  From  the  beginning 
primitive  agriculture  illustrated  the  psychological 
influences  of  the  farming  vocation  by  the  contribu- 
tions it  made  to  the  developing  social  mind  of 
those  who  learned  the  advantage  of  getting  food 
supply  by  the  cultivation  of  the  soil. 

Civilization  and  agriculture  are  indissolubly 
linked  together.  It  was  by  means  of  the  gradual 
development  of  an  agricultural  mode  of  life  that 
primitive  man  was  able  to  arrive  at  a  degree  of 
social  permanency.  The  tremendous  significance 


PRIMITIVE  AGRICULTURE  13 

of  this  transition  from  a  wandering  existence  deeply 
impressed  racial  tradition  and  led  the  thinking  of 
antiquity  to  ascribe  to  agriculture  a  divine  origin. 
Brahma  in  Hindustan,  Isis  in  Egypt,  Demeter 
in  Greece,  and  Ceres  in  Italy  were  credited  with 
the  founding  of  agriculture. 

In  evolutionary  history  agriculture  in  its  begin- 
nings goes  back  to  Neolithic  man.  In  the  distinc- 
tive features  of  the  Neolithic  epoch  the  most 
important  economic  progress  consisted  in  a  rudi- 
mentary knowledge  of  agriculture.  By  the  use  of 
crude  implements,  gradually  introduced,  a  simple 
cultivation  of  a  few  plants  and  seeds  became  pos- 
sible, and  an  increased  food  supply.  As  a  result 
of  this  larger  and  more  stable  food  supply  Neo- 
lithic man  was  led  away  from  his  nomadic  mode  of 
life  to  a  more  or  less  permanent  settlement.1 

Savage  man's  widespread  custom  of  offering 
a  human  sacrifice  or  of  performing  at  seed-planting 
time  ceremonies  that  are  vestiges  of  former  sacri- 
ficial practices  suggests  that  primitive  agriculture 
may  have  originated  in  connection  with  the  burial 
of  the  dead.2  The  graves  were  necessarily  shallow 
due  to  the  inadequate  tools  for  deep  digging,  and 
the  earth  was  often  heaped  over  the  dead,  forming 
mounds.  The  food  material,  especially  wild  grains, 
buried  with  the  dead  or  placed  upon  the  mound 

1  Osborn,  Men  of  the  Old  Stone  Age,  p.  496. 
3  Frazer,  Golden  Bough. 


14  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

may  have  resulted  in  the  first  sowing  of  seed  and 
given  rise  in  the  primitive  mind  to  the  idea  that 
the  plants  which  later  appeared  and  bore  fruit  were 
expressing  the  life  of  the  departed.  It  would 
follow  that  when  the  thought  of  deliberately  sow- 
ing for  a  harvest  later  arose,  the  ceremonial  burial 
in  some  form  or  other  would  continue  as  a  necessary 
part  of  harvest  preparation. 

In  the  more  recent  experience  of  savage  peoples 
we  find  illustration  of  primitive  man's  entrance 
upon  the  agricultural  life.  Writing  of  the  Papuans 
of  New  Guinea  and  of  the  Torres  Straits  a  modern 
authority  gives  this  vivid  description  of  the  change 
from  the  mobile  to  the  semi-settled  life: 

The  Papuans  are  the  first  to  change  the  digging-stick 
into  the  hoe,  a  useful  implement  in  tilling  the  soil.  In  this 
first  form  of  the  hoe,  the  point  is  turned  so  as  to  form  an 
acute  angle  with  the  handle  to  which  it  is  attached.  Hence 
the  soil  is  not  tilled  in  the  manner  of  the  later  hoe-culture 
proper;  nothing  more  is  done  than  to  draw  furrows  into 
which  the  seeds  are  scattered.  In  many  respects,  how- 
ever, this  primitive  implement  represents  a  great  advance 
over  the  method  of  simply  gathering  food  as  practised  when 
the  digging-stick  alone  was  known.  It  is  the  man  who 
makes  the  furrows  with  the  hoe,  since  the  loosening  of  the 
ground  requires  his  greater  strength;  he  walks  ahead,  and 
the  woman  follows  with  the  seeds,  which  she  scatters  into 
the  furrows.  For  the  first  time,  thus,  we  discern  a  pro- 
vision for  the  future,  and  also  a  common  tilling  of  the  soil. 
The  gathering  of  the  fruits  generally  devolves  upon  the 
woman  alone.  But  even  among  the  Papuans  this  first 


PRIMITIVE  AGRICULTURE  15 

step  in  the  direction  of  agriculture  is  found  only  here  and 
there.  The  possibility  of  external  influences  therefore 
remains.1 

Primitive  soil  cultivation  was  of  course  at  first 
of  the  simplest  character.  It  consisted  perhaps 
merely  in  protecting  the  growing  plants  until 
matured  and  then  harvesting  them.  When  the 
food  supply  became  exhausted  the  settlement 
moved  to  another  site. 

An  interesting  illustration  of  this  primitive  type 
of  agriculture  appears  in  a  recent  description  of 
Stone  Age  conditions  in  Dutch  New  Guinea.2  The 
valuable  study  that  has  been  made  of  the  gathering 
of  wild  rice  by  the  North  American  Indians  of  the 
Upper  Lakes  pictures  the  same  type  of  agriculture 
carried  on  by  people  of  a  somewhat  higher  culture.3 

Before  any  considerable  progress  in  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  soil  could  ensue  certain  indispensable 
conditions  had  to  be  brought  about.  First  of  all 
there  had  to  be  a  suitable  climate  and  soil.  In 
addition  the  higher  mode  of  life  required  protection 
from  the  warring  enemy  ever  ready  to  plunder,  a 
degree  of  security  from  insect  pests,  a  fixed  settle- 
ment, and,  most  important  of  all  probably,  pressing 
need  of  food.  The  conditions  of  savage  life  as 

1  Wilhelm  Wundt,  Elements  of  Folk  Psychology,  p.  126. 

3  Wollaston,  Pygmies  and  Papuans.  The  Stone  Age  Today 
in  Dutch  New  Guinea,  p.  101. 

Jjenks,  "The  Wild  Rice  Gatherers  of  the  Upper  Lakes," 
Bureau  of  American  Ethnology  Reports,  XIX,  1013-1137. 


1 6  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

revealed  by  travelers  and  scientists  are  such  as  to 
make  agriculture,  even  when  started,  a  hazardous 
undertaking.  Insect  pests,  especially  in  the  trop- 
ics, make  the  harvesting  and  storing  of  food  exceed- 
ingly difficult  and  at  times  impossible.1  The  enemy 
is  seldom  absent.  With  rude  tools  the  task  of  clear- 
ing land  and  keeping  it  clear  is  something  even 
civilized  man  would  hesitate  to  assume.  Habits 
formed  by  nomadic  existence  rebel  against  the 
ordeal  of  a  settled  life. 

The  transition  to  a  feeble  beginning  of  the  agri- 
cultural life  is  usually  forced  upon  savages  by  the 
need  of  food.2  The  savage  learns  the  value  of 
plants  and  discovers  the  possibility  of  their  cultiva- 
tion before  he  is  equal  to  the  foresight,  patience, 
and  drudgery  required  by  soil  cultivation.  Even 
when  he  begins  to  get  his  food  supply  from  the 
growing  of  vegetables  he  still  hunts  and  fishes  for 
the  greater  part  of  his  provisions.  Since  the  sav- 
age, wherever  we  find  him  living  at  his  lowest  level 
of  culture,  places  the  burden  of  gathering  vegetable 
food  upon  the  woman  it  seems  safe  to  suppose 
that  primitive  man's  first  step  toward  the  agri- 
cultural mode  of  life  resulted  from  the  drudgery 
that  was  forced  upon  the  woman. 

However  haphazard  and  meager  the  beginning 
of  the  conscious  use  of  soil  for  plant  cultivation,  it 

1  Wollaston,  op.  cit.,  pp.  58-59. 

a  Thomas,  Source  Book  for  Social  Origins,  pp.  65-66. 


PRIMITIVE  AGRICULTURE  17 

marked  a  very  great  social  advance  and  one  that 
had  the  strongest  influence  upon  the  habits  of 
primitive  man.  The  effect  of  vocation  upon  the 
civilized  individual  is  well  recognized.  Doctor, 
lawyer,  engineer,  farmer,  each  has  certain  char- 
acteristics which  are  the  product  of  his  vocational 
experiences.  In  a  far  greater  degree,  by  changes 
difficult  to  imagine,  the  giving  up  of  an  exclusive 
interest  in  hunting,  fishing,  or  even  cattle-breeding 
as  a  means  of  food  production  and  the  turning  to  the 
raising  of  vegetables  created  for  primitive  man  a 
new  set  of  vocational  habits  of  the  largest  conse- 
quences for  social  development. 

The  dramatic  factor  of  the  hunt  was  by  slow 
gradations  discounted  for  the  greater  advantages 
of  a  more  reliable  and  abundant  source  of  food. 
The  distance  between  hunger  and  the  means  of 
procuring  food  for  its  satisfaction  widened,  and 
it  became  possible  for  the  attention  to  turn  to  the 
process  itself.  It  is  this  separation  between  the 
present  stimulus  of  hunger  and  the  activities  it 
prompts  with  the  hope  of  future  satisfaction  that 
furnishes  opportunity  for  those  mental  and  social 
traits  to  develop  that  are  the  basis  of  the  civilized 
conditions  of  life.  Self-control  in  undertaking 
labor  which  was  not  expected  immediately  to  bring 
its  rewarding  satisfactions,  increasing  attention  to 
the  slow  processes  by  which  plant  food  is  provided, 
inventive  skill  in  devising  more  and  more  useful 


l8  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

tools,  greater  sense  of  prudence  in  the  attempt  to 
store  food — these  were  some  of  the  mental  products 
of  the  coming  of  the  new  vocational  experience. 

The  tendency  to  linger  at  a  settlement,  the 
acceleration  of  the  development  of  the  division  of 
labor,  on  a  sex  basis  at  first,  the  growth  in  the  idea 
of  property  and  law — these  were  among  the  impor- 
tant social  products  of  the  higher  agrarian  culture. 
These  social  advantages  were  meager,  however, 
until  men  as  well  as  women  took  up  the  task  of 
tilling  the  soil.  We  find  sometimes  among  savages 
that  a  part  of  the  agricultural  work  may  be  car- 
ried on  by  men  and  the  balance  by  the  women. 
For  example,  among  the  Mafulu  peoples  of  New 
Guinea,  Williamson1  describes  a  division  of  labor 
which  puts  upon  the  men  the  cutting  down  of 
trees  and  the  making  of  fences,  while  the  clearing 
of  the  underbrush  is  put  upon  the  women.  It  is 
likely  that  stern  necessity  forced  primitive  man  to 
make  use  of  his  superior  strength  in  providing  for 
the  women  an  opportunity  to  carry  on  their  simple 
form  of  agriculture.  Everything  we  know  about 
the  savage  teaches  us  that  the  primitive  male 
could  not  have  taken  kindly  to  the  new  vocational 
experiences  thrust  upon  him.  The  reason  is  obvi- 
ous. He  was  turning  from  a  means  of  food-getting 
that  made  a  tremendous  appeal  to  his  instincts 
and  was  attempting  tasks  for  which  his  training 

1  R.  W.  Williamson,  The  Ways  of  the  South  Sea  Savage,  p.  233. 


PRIMITIVE  AGRICULTURE  19 

and  mental  equipment  made  him  unfit.  This 
readjustment  of  vocation-habits  was  the  most 
difficult  and  the  most  important  man  ever  has 
undertaken.  To  value  it  aright  in  its  social  con- 
sequences one  must  regard  it  not  merely  as  provid- 
ing a  better  source  of  food;  its  significance  as  a 
teacher  of  new  attitudes  of  mind  and  new  modes  of 
social  experience  must  also  be  appreciated. 

The  rapid  and  radical  social  change  in  savage 
society  due  to  the  introduction  of  agriculture  is 
well  brought  out  by  the  following  description  of 
Major  Leonard's: 

With  the  progress  from  a  hunting  life  to  agriculture 
an  improvement  and  development  had  taken  place  in  the 
social  scale.  The  families,  or  first  social  units,  had  increased 
and  multiplied,  and  necessitated  a  further  extension  of 
premises  and  a  greater  area  for  cultivation.  This  expansion 
of  the  units,  as  in  the  previous  stage  of  development,  but 
in  increasing  ratio,  had  developed  into  communities  which 
necessitated  greater  demands,  among  which  religious  and 
moral  principles  figured  most  prominently.1 

The  mental  factors  developed  with  hunting 
and  fishing  habits  could  not  be  utilized  to  any 
extent  under  an  agricultural  regime,  but  they  did 
not  pass  out  of  human  history  an  utter  loss.  As 
has  been  pointed  out  by  John  Dewey,2  they  found 
new  expression.  In  the  words  of  present-day  psy- 
chology they  were  sublimated.  In  place  of  hunt- 

1  A.  G.  Leonard,  The  Lower  Niger  and  Its  Tribes,  p.  101. 
'"  Thomas,  op.  cit.,  p.  186. 


2O  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

ing  animals  for  food,  and  other  humans  for  the 
satisfaction  of  killing  them,  new  forms  of  pursuit 
originated.  When  the  development  of  agriculture 
reached  a  stage  that  permitted  the  gathering  of 
such  a  surplus  of  food. as  made  possible  the  city 
with  a  population  dependent  upon  outside  support 
for  sustenance,  then  the  spirit  of  the  hunt  was  given 
an  adequate  vocational  expression  by  the  pressure 
and  competition  of  urban  life.  Business  especially 
offered  the  zest  and  struggle  and  even  the  craft  of 
the  hunter's  life.  The  dramatic  appeal  of  primi- 
tive life  was  more  than  matched  by  the  satisfactions 
of  commercial  competition.  Even  the  pleasure  of 
contests  with  the  enemy  was  provided  by  the 
antagonisms  of  classes. 

The  ancient  handicap  of  the  agricultural  voca- 
tion still  remains.  From  a  hunter's  viewpoint  it 
is  even  yet  a  prosaic  occupation  and  in  large 
measure  likely  so  to  continue.  It  has  a  dramatic 
element  in  the  never-ending  struggle  of  the  wits 
of  man  against  the  untoward  happenings  of  season 
and  climate,  but  the  average  imagination  cannot 
grasp  this  form  of  contest  so  easily  as  it  does  the 
spectacular  conflicts  furnished  by  the  commercial 
strife  of  man  against  man  in  the  cities. 

The  theory1  has  been  advanced  that  this  differ- 
ence in  the  appeal  of  country  and  city  vocations 
has  tended  toward  an  ethnic  stratification  in  Cen- 

1  Ripley,  Races  of  Europe,  pp.  537-59. 


PRIMITIVE  AGRICULTURE  21 

tral  Europe.  The  head  shape  that  characterizes 
the  Teutonic  racial  type,  it  is  claimed,  is  more 
commonly  found  in  the  urban  population,  the 
broad-headed  representative  of  the  Alpine  race 
being  predominantly  rural.  In  this  stratification 
of  race  head  forms  are  included  mental  traits.  The 
Alpine  type  is  defined  as  rural-minded,  tenacious 
in  its  grip  upon  the  soil.  It  represents  conserva- 
tism and  is  indisposed  to  migrate.  To  this  racial 
type  belongs  the  peasant.  On  the  other  hand  the 
mobile  Teuton,  the  long-headed  type,  loves  the 
city  with  its  opportunity  for  energetic  competition 
and  for  dominance.  Therefore,  when  within  any 
territory  there  is  a  considerable  mingling  of  the 
two  races,  he  furnishes  the  greater  part  of  the 
urban  population.  This  theory,  which  is  by  no 
means  an  established  fact  of  science,  calls  attention 
to  the  natural  attractiveness  of  the  city  for  the 
more  pugnacious  and  domineering  individuals  of  a 
population.  Those  who  are  by  instinct  fitted  for 
a  struggle  with  persons  must  seek  urban  conditions 
for  their  highest  social  satisfaction.  The  other 
type,  on  the  contrary,  firm  in  a  primitive  love  for 
the  soil  and  well  equipped  for  a  patient  but  ceaseless 
contest  with  nature,  is  most  at  home  in  the  small 
village  or  open  country. 

The  hunter  has  by  no  means  limited  himself  in 
modern  life  to  business  and  class  competition.  The 
mental  cravings  typical  of  the  hunter  find  frequent 


22  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

and  periodic  expression  in  warfare.  How  deep 
these  cravings  are  and  how  persistent  is  clearly 
shown  by  the  large  place  war  holds  in  the  record  of 
modern  history.  Since  the  first  appearance  of 
agriculture  human  nature  has  suffered  a  social  dual- 
ism. The  hunter-warrior's  impulses  have  made  for 
war;  the  shepherd-farmer's  for  peace.1  The  aver- 
age modern  man  finds  himself  impelled  toward 
the  captivating  emotional  orgasm  of  war  and  also 
toward  the  pleasures  and  opportunities  of  the 
orderly  and  productive  life  of  peace.  The  normal 
influence  of  rural  experience  tends  toward  peace 
and  attainment  of  satisfaction  by  productive  labor. 
The  urban  mind  is  more  easily  inflamed  into  the 
war  mind  and  started  upon  a  violent  career.  War 
draws  out  the  impetuous  impulses  of  the  hunter's 
disposition,  and  with  the  return  of  peace  the  citizen 
turns  to  ordinary  occupations  with  relief.  It  is  in 
terms  of  war,  however,  that  he  still  expresses  his 
profound  political  loyalty,  and  from  war  experi- 
ences that  he  constructs  his  strongest  traditions. 
As  the  agriculturists  little  by  little  narrowed  the 
hunter's  territory  by  bringing  the  soil  under  per- 
manent cultivation,  so  the  social  mind  originating 
from  the  farming  experience  makes  slow  headway 
against  the  powerful  appeal  of  war  upon  man's 
most  primitive  and  irrational  cravings. 

1  "A  Rustic  View  of  War  and  Peace,"  Papers  for  the  Present, 

p.  22. 


PRIMITIVE  AGRICULTURE  23 

REFERENCES  ON  THE  SOCIAL  CONTRIBUTION 
OF  PRIMITIVE  AGRICULTURE 

Bordeau,   L.,   "The  Beginnings  of  Agriculture,"  Popular 

Science  Monthly,  XLVI,  678-88. 
Elliot,  G.  F.  S.,  Prehistoric  Man  and  His  Story,  chaps,  xii, 

xiii.     London:   Seeley,  Service  &  Co.,  1920. 
Hobhouse,  L.  T.,  Wheeler,  G.  C.,  and  Ginsberg,  M.,  The 

Material  Culture  and  Social  Institutions  of  the  Simpler 

Peoples,  chap.  i.     London:   Chapman  &  Hall,  1915. 
Jenks,  A.  E.,  "The  Wild-Rice  Gatherers  of  the  Upper 

Lakes,"  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology  Reports,  XIX, 

1013-1137. 
Kroeber,  A.  L.,  and  Waterman,  T.  T.,  Source  Book  in 

Anthropology,  pp.   245-52.     Berkeley:    University  of 

California  Press,  1920. 
McGee,  W  J,  "The  Beginning  of  Agriculture,"  American 

Anthropologist,  October,  1895,  pp.  350-75. 
,    "The    Beginning    of    Zooculture,"    American 

Anthropologist,  July,  1897,  pp.  215-30. 
Osborn,  H.  F.,  Men  of  the  Old  Stone  Age,  pp.  496-99.    New 

York:  Scribner's,  1919. 
Ratzel,  F.,  The  History  of  Mankind  (A.  J.  Butler,  transl.),  I, 

87-93.     London:  Macmillan,  1896. 
Roth,  H.  L.,  "On  the  Origin  of  Agriculture,"  Journal  of  the 

Anthropological  Institute,  August,  1886,  pp.  102-36. 


Ill 

CITY  DRIFT 

The  most  significant  movement  of  population 
today  in  both  Europe  and  America  is  the  constant 
migration  of  people  from  the  country  to  the  cities. 
This  population  drift,  one  of  the  many  results  of 
modern  industrialism,  is  of  the  greatest  social  con- 
sequence. It  portrays  economic  and  social  motives 
that  indicate  an  increasing  urbanizing  of  civilized 
people  everywhere.  An  impetus  toward  the  urban 
concentration  of  people,  started  by  the  industrial 
development  of  the  last  century,  is  greatly  stimu- 
lated by  the  social  conditions  of  the  twentieth 
century.  This  movement,  already  excessive,  is 
becoming  still  more  pronounced  as  a  result  of 
conditions  created  by  the  experiences  of  the 
world-war;  and  everywhere  rural  statesmanship  is 
attempting  to  cope  with  the  problem. 

The  drift  of  rural  people  to  the  cities  appears 
to  be  even  greater  in  Europe  than  in  this  country. 
Most  of  the  European  cities  have  been  growing 
faster  than  our  own.  In  Germany,  France,  and 
England  especially  a  constant  depopulation  of  the 
rural  districts  is  more  and  more  making  Europe  one 
vast  urban  area.  From  1881  to  1891  the  French 
cities  of  thirty  thousand  inhabitants  or  over  added 

24 


CITY  DRIFT  25 

to  their  respective  numbers  more  than  three  times 
as  many  as  the  total  increase  of  population  for  the 
entire  country.  In  the  same  period  Paris  absorbed 
four-fifths  of  the  entire  increase  of  population  of 
France  during  the  decade.1  For  France  as  a  whole 
the  rural  population  has  decreased  during  the  sixty 
years  between  1846  and  1906  as  much  as  i6f  per 
cent.2 

We  have  startling  testimony  from  a  student  and 
lover  of  rural  England  regarding  city  drift  in  his 
country : 

When  we  turn  to  the  question  of  the  decrease  in  the 
inhabitants  of  English  rural  districts,  it  is  to  find  ourselves 
confronted  with  some  startling  figures.  I  read  that  in 
1851  the  agricultural  labourers  of  England  and  Wales 
numbered  1,253,800  and  that  in  1891  they  had  shrunk  to 
about  780,700.  What  the  census  of  1901  shows  their  num- 
ber to  be  I  do  not  yet  know,  but  I  shall  be  much  surprised 
if  it  records  any  advance.  Taking  it  on  the  1891  basis, 
however,  it  would  seem  that  whereas  between  1851  and 
1891  the  population  of  England  and  Wales  had  increased  by 
about  a  half,  its  agricultural  inhabitants  during  this  same 
period  had  actually  decreased  by  over  one-third,  with  the 
result  that  whereas  in  1891  the  urban  districts  could  show 
a  total  of  about  25,000,000  people,  the  rural  districts  held 
only  about  7,500,000,  that  is,  some  23  per  cent  of  the  popu- 
lation, as  against  77  per  cent  living  in  towns  or  their  immedi- 
ate neighbourhood.  These  figures  are  very  eloquent  and 
very  ominous,  especially  if  a  careful  analysis  of  those  of  the 

1  Ripley,  The  Races  of  Europe,  p.  540. 

1  Second  Wisconsin  Country  Life  Conference,  p.  112. 


26  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

last  census  should  prove  them  to  be  progressive  in  the  same 
directions.1 

In  days  that  are  quite  recent,  as  the  remarkable  Necton 
document  quoted  in  my  chapter  on  Norfolk  shows,  folk 
were  haunted  by  an  absolute  terror  of  the  over-peopling  of  the 
rural  districts.  Now  they  suffer  from  a  very  different  fear. 
The  plethoric  population-bogey  of  1830  has  been  replaced 
by  the  lean  exodus-skeleton  of  1902.  People  are  deserting 
the  villages  wholesale,  leaving  behind  them  the  mentally 
incompetent  and  the  physically  unfit;  nor,  at  any  rate  in 
many  parts  of  England, — although  in  this  matter  East 
Anglia  is  perhaps  better  off  than  are  most  other  districts, — 
does  the  steady  flow  to  the  cities  show  signs  of  ceasing. 
Yet — and  this  is  one  of  the  strangest  circumstances  con- 
nected with  the  movement — those  cities  whither  they  go 
are  full  of  misery.  Disease,  wretchedness,  the  last  extremes 
of  want,  and  the  ultimate  extinction  of  their  families  will  be 
the  lot  of  at  least  a  large  proportion  of  these  immigrants.2 

It  is  interesting  to  find  in  a  country  as  rural  as 
Sweden  the  same  urban  trend.  A  recent  report  of 
the  Swedish  government  states  that 

if  instead  of  being  bound  by  legal  distinctions  between 
town  and  country,  one  counts  as  towns  all  well-populated 
places  of  at  least  2,000  inh.,  the  entire  town  population 

1  Distribution  of  urban  and  rural  population  of  England  and 
Wales  in  1901  and  1911  (Statesman's  Year  Book,  1921,  p.  19): 


1901 

1911 

Percentage 
of  Increase 

Total  urban  

25,351,118 

28,162,936 

ii  .1 

Total  rural    

7,176,725 

7>9°7>5s6 

2  Sir  Rider  Haggard,  Rural  England,  pp.  565-66. 


CITY  DRIFT  27 

probably  rises  to  about  1,685,000,  corresponding  as  nearly 

as  may  be  to  30  per  cent  of  the  population 

The  urban  population  during  the  nineteenth  century 
increased  from  scarcely  10  per  cent  of  the  whole  population 
to  more  than  21  per  cent.  This  advance,  however,  does 
not  begin  until  the  decade  beginning  1841,  after  the  abolition 
of  the  old  guild  corporations  (1846) ;  since  then  the  popula- 
tion of  the  towns  of  Sweden  has  increased  at  an  unusually 
rapid  rate,  far  quicker  than  in  Western  Europe  generally; 
during  quite  recent  times,  since  the  end  of  the  last  century 
or  somewhat  later,  the  increase  of  urban  population,  in 
spite  of  important  incorporations,  has  gone  on  somewhat 
slower,  that  of  rural  districts  somewhat  faster  than  during 
the  few  previous  decades.  This  is  chiefly  due  to  the  fact 
already  pointed  out,  that  by  the  side  of  the  old,  legally 
acknowledged  towns,  new  places  similar  to  towns  arose, 
sometimes  as  suburbs,  but  often  enough  as  new  independent 
town  organizations,  or  the  beginnings  of  them.  The 
next  generation,  therefore,  will  see,  in  all  probability,  a  great 
increase  in  the  urban  population  of  Sweden.1 

Canada  with  its  vast  stretches  of  fertile  land 
might  be  expected  to  escape  the  world-wide  urban 
trend  of  population,  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
Canadian  cities  are  growing  at  the  expense  of 
the  country  districts.  This  fact  is  impressively 
revealed  by  MacDougall's  study  of  Canadian  rural 
life.  He  reports  that  the  country  people  formed  in 
Canada  according  to  the  census  of  1901,  62.4  per 
cent  of  the  total  population;  in  1911  they  had 
fallen  to  54.4  per  cent.  The  city  population,  37.6 

1 J.  Guinchard,  Sweden,  Vol.  I,  p.  1 19. 


28  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

in  1901,  had  increased  to  45.6  in  1911.    He  gives  the 
following  evidence  of  the  urban  trend  in  Canada: 

The  proportion  of  rural  to  total  population  has  fallen 
in  every  Province  during  the  decade;  in  Prince  Edward 
Island  from  85  per  cent  to  84;  in  Saskatchewan  from  80  to 
73  per  cent;  in  New  Brunswick  from  76  per  cent  to  71; 
in  Manitoba  from  72  to  56  per  cent;  from  71  per  cent  to 
62  in  Nova  Scotia  and  in  Alberta;  from  60  to  51  per  cent  in 
Quebec;  in  Ontario  from  57  per  cent  to  47;  and  in  British 
Columbia  from  49  to  48  per  cent.1 

Assuming  that  the  natural  increase  of  population  is 
1.5  per  cent  per  annum,  the  rural  population  of  the  Dominion 
in  1901,  3,349,516,  should  have  increased  by  547,878  before 
the  census  was  taken  in  1911.  Of  the  1,715,326  immigrants 
who  came  to  Canada  during  the  decade,  approximately 
one-third  at  the  ports  of  entry  gave  farming  as  their  occupa- 
tion. These,  with  the  same  annual  rate  of  increase,  give  a 
further  augment  of  670,258.  The  rural  population  thus 
received  an  accretion  of  1,218,136.  The  actual  growth 
was  574,878.  Therefore  643,258  persons  left  our  country 
districts  during  the  decade.2 

The  magnitude  of  city  drift  in  the  United  States 
is  disclosed  by  the  tables  given  on  page  29,  from 
the  report  of  the  census  of  1910: 

For  the  interpretation  of  these  tables  the  reader 
must  bear  in  mind  that  the  population  residing 
in  cities  or  incorporated  places  of  2,500  or  more 
inhabitants,  including  New  England  towns  of  that 

1  John  MacDougall,  Rural  Life  in  Canada,  p.  23. 
3  Ibid.,  p.  29. 


CITY  DRIFT 


29 


size,  was  classified  as  urban.     Outside  New  Eng- 
land towns  of  2,500  people  or  more  are  usually 

RURAL  AND  URBAN  POPULATION  OF  THE  UNITED 
STATES,  1880-1910* 


YEAR 

NUMBER 

PERCENTAGE 

PERCENTAGE 
OF  INCREASE 

Total 

Urban 

Rural 

Urban 

Rural 

Urban 

Rural 

1910.  . 

IQOO.  . 
1890.. 
1880.. 

91,972,266 
75,994,575 
62,947,714 
SO,IS5,783 

42,623,383 
30,797,185 
22,720,223 
14,772,438 

49,348,883 
45,197,39° 
40,227,491 
35,383,345 

46.3 
40.5 
36.1 
29-5 

53-7 
59-5 
63-9 
70.5 

38.3 

35-5 
53-8 

9-1 
12.3 
13.6 

*  United  States  Census,  1910,  "Population,"  p.  53. 

PROPORTION  OF  THE  POPULATION  OF  THE  UNITED 
STATES,  IN  CITIES  OF  8,000  OR  MORE,  1790-1910* 


Year 

Number 
of  Places 

Percentage 
of  Increase 
Each  Decade 

Percentage 
of  Total 
Population 

Percentage 
of  Increase 

1910  

778 

30   8 

38.8 

c    7 

1900  

S?6 

23   8 

33    I 

4  O 

1890  

440 

^4    2 

2Q    I 

6    3 

1880  

2QI 

28   7 

22    8 

I    O 

1870  

226 

60    2 

2O   0 

4  8 

1860  

141 

65  8 

16  i 

3  6 

1850  

8s 

Q-}      I 

12  s 

4O 

1840  

44 

69    2 

8  <; 

1830.  . 

26 

IOO    O 

6  7 

1820  

i? 

18  i 

4   0 

1810  

n 

8?  3 

4.   Q 

1800  

6 

o  o 

4.  o 

I7QO.  . 

6 

3    3 

*  United  Slates  Census,  1910,  "Population,"  p.  54. 


incorporated.     In  six  states  of  the  Union,  Vermont, 
New     Hampshire,     Ohio,     Indiana,     Iowa,     and 


THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 


Missouri,  the  rural  population,  including  village 
population,  decreased. 

An  attempt  has  been  made  by  Professor  John 
M.  Gillette  to  proportion  the  different  elements 
responsible  for  the  growth  of  the  American  cities, 
and  his  investigation,  based  upon  the  census  report 
of  1910,  accounts  for  the  urban  increase  under  the 
four  heads :  incorporation,  or  the  addition  of  urban 
territory,  immigration,  natural  increase  of  city 
population,  and  rural  migration.  His  results  are 
expressed  in  the  following  table: 

FACTORS  OF  URBAN  INCREASE  FOR  THE  UNITED 
STATES  AS  A  WHOLE,  1900-1910* 


Factor 

Amount 

Percentage 
of  Urban 
Increase 

Incorporation  

924,000 

7.8 

Immigration  

4  ,  849  ,  ooo 

41  .0 

Natural  increase  

2  ,426,000 

20.  1 

Rural  migration  

3  ,  6  3  7  ,  ooo 

3O.  7 

Total  

II  ,826,000 

IOO.O 

*  John  M.  Gillette,  "A  Study  in  Social  Dynamics,"  Quarterly  Publications 
of  the  American  Statistical  Association,  December,  1916,  p.  365. 


The  author  obtains  by  a  different  method  of 
analysis  3,275,000  as  the  minimum  estimate  of  the 
amount  of  rural  migration  for  the  decade  and  con- 
cludes that  the  true  estimate  would  fall  between 
the  minimum  and  maximum  figures,  or  about 
3,500,000. 


CITY  DRIFT  31 

Detailed  statistics  concerning  the  urban  and 
rural  population,  based  on  the  census  of  1920,  are 
being  compiled  but  are  not  completed.  In  a  pre- 
liminary announcement,  however,  Director  Rogers 
has  made  public  the  following: 

/  The  figures  of  the  present  census  also  show  that  the 
trend  of  population  from  the  country  to  the  city  has  become 
greatly  accentuated  since  1910  and  that,  for  the  first  time 
in  the  country's  history,  more  than  half  the  entire  population 
is  now  living  in  urban  territory  as  defined  by  the  Census 
Bureau.  That  is  to  say,  of  the  105,683,108  persons  enumer- 
ated in  the  Fourteenth  Census,  preliminary  tabulations 
show  that  54,816,209,  or  51.9  per  cent,  are  living  in  incor- 
porated places  of  2,500  inhabitants  or  more,  and  50,866,899, 
or  48.1  per  cent,  in  rural  territory.)  At  the  census  of  1910 
the  corresponding  percentages  were  46.3  and  53.7,  respec- 
tively, showing  a  loss  of  5.6  per  cent  in  the  proportion  for 
the  population  living  in  rural  territory.  To  show  more 
clearly  the  change  in  the  proportion  of  the  population  living 
in  rural  territory  now  as  compared  with  ten  years  ago,  the 
rural  population  can  be  divided  into  two  classes,  namely, 
9,864,196,  or  9.3  per  cent  of  the  total  population  living  in 
incorporated  places  of  less  than  2,500  inhabitants,  and 
41,002,703,  or  38.8  per  cent  of  the  total  population  living 
in  what  may  be  called  purely  country  districts.  At  the 
census  of  1910,  the  population  living  in  incorporated  places 
of  less  than  2,500  inhabitants  formed  8.8  per  cent,  while  the 
population  living  in  purely  country  districts  formed  44.8  per 
cent  of  the  total  population. 

The  increase  since  1910  in  the  population  as  a  whole, 
as  before  stated,  was  14.9  per  cent,  but  during  the  decade 
there  has  been  an  increase  in  that  portion  of  the  population 
living  in  urban  territory  of  12,192,826,  or  28.6  per  cent, 


32  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

and  in  that  portion  living  in  rural  territory  of  1,518,016, 
or  only  3.1  per  cent;  and  if  the  comparison  is  extended  to 
cover  the  two  classes  of  rural  territory,  it  appears  that 
that  portion  living  in  incorporated  places  of  less  than  2,500 
inhabitants  shows  an  increase  of  1,745,371,  or  21.5  per  cent, 
whereas  that  portion  living  in  purely  country  districts  shows 
an  actual  decrease  of  227,355,  °r  six-tenths  of  i  per  cent. 

A  survey  recently  made  of  the  town  of  Sand- 
wich, New  Hampshire,  disclosed  the  influence  of 
the  development  of  manufacturing  in  New  England 
upon  the  destiny  of  a  community  which  has  always 
been  strictly  rural.  The  year  1830  represented  the 
beginning  of  an  era  of  industrial  prosperity  in  New 
England,1  and  the  population  reported  at  Sandwich 
for  that  year  is  its  maximum.  From  that  time  the 
growth  of  urban  manufacturing  and  trade  started 
a  migration  which  has  not  yet  ceased.  The  follow- 
ing table  makes  this  clear. 

POPULATION,  SANDWICH,  NEW  HAMPSHIRE 


i8io  

.    2,232 

1820  

.    2,368 

1830  

•   2,743 

1840  

.   2,625 

1850  

•   2,577 

1860  

.   2,227 

1870  

•   1,854 

1880  

1,701 

1890  

•    1,303 

1900  

•   1,077 

1910  

928 

1  Population  Growth  in  Southern  New 

England.    American 

Statistical  Association  Publication. 

CITY  DRIFT  33 

A  striking  fact  with  reference  to  the  city  drift 
is  the  greater  migration  of  females  than  males. 
Merritt1  states  that  "in  practically  all  countries 
there  is  an  excess  of  males  in  the  rural  districts  and 
when  we  compare  by  sex  and  by  age  groups  the  per- 
centage of  the  total  population  living  in  rural  dis- 
tricts we  find  an  excess  of  men  at  all  ages."  In 
the  United  States  there  is,  however,  one  exception. 
The  predomination  of  middle-aged  negro  females 
in  the  rural  sections  of  the  South  causes  in  most 
of  the  counties  an  excess  of  negro  females.  In 
the  other  age  groups  the  negro  males  predominate. 
In  Europe,  where  agriculture  is  carried  on  without 
machinery,  there  is  an  excess  of  females  in  the 
rural  parts;  where  modern  machinery  is  largely 
used  males  predominate. 

A  very  important  question  arises  with  reference 
to  our  national  city  drift.  In  how  far  does  this 
migration  mean  a  depletion  of  population  vitality  ? 
Does  it  represent  a  survival  in  the  rural  districts 
of  people  socially  less  efficient  than  those  who 
move  to  the  cities?  Professor  Edward  A.  Ross 
made  in  1911  a  walking  trip  through  certain  parts 
of  rural  New  England  for  the  purpose  of  studying 
the  social  life  of  communities  that  for  some  time 
had  been  decreasing  in  population.  He  found  that 

'Merritt,  "Agricultural  Element  in  the  Population," 
Quarterly  Publications  of  the  American  Statistical  Association, 
March,  1916,  p.  56. 


34 


THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 


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36  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

the  more  thoughtful  people  of  these  communities 
felt  that  the  standards  of  social  life  were  gradually 
falling.  As  a  result  of  this  investigation  and  from 
knowledge  of  conditions  in  certain  rural  sections  of 
the  Middle  West,  Professor  Ross  paints  a  rather 
gloomy  picture  of  country  conditions  in  the  two 
rural  sections.1  It  is  difficult  of  course  to  determine 
the  value  of  the  opinion  of  even  the  most  thought- 
ful of  rural  people  regarding  social  deterioration  or 
progress  in  their  own  communities.  A  chronic 
attitude  of  complaining  is  often  to  be  found  among 
the  inhabitants  of  the  long-settled  rural  districts, 
and  their  fault-finding  stands  in  sharpest  contrast 
with  the  discounting  of  urban  imperfections  on  the 
part  of  the  average  city  dweller  and  with  the  blind 
optimism  or  dishonest  town-booming  to  be  found 
in  pioneering  communities  of  the  far  West.  This 
peculiar  expression  of  community  pessimism  in  the 
long-settled  rural  sections,  significant  as  it  may  be 
in  itself  as  a  social  phenomenon,  is  of  little  value  in 
determining  the  social  progress  or  degeneration  of 
any  locality.  It  is  certainly  easy  to  demonstrate 
that  the  past  is  generally  painted  in  too  rosy  a 
light;  it  is  frequently  also  true  that  the  present  does 
not  receive  justice.  In  comforts,  morality,  educa- 
tional opportunities,  and  public  idealism  without 
question  many  rural  New  England  communities  are 

1  "Folk  Depletion  as  a  Cause  of  Rural  Decline,"  Publications 
of  the  American  Sociological  Society,  Vol.  XI,  pp.  21-30. 


CITY  DRIFT  37 

now  better  off  than  they  were  in  the  past  in  spite 
of  a  decrease  of  population.  In  other  sections 
undoubtedly  there  has  been  degeneration  as  well 
as  a  lessening  of  the  population.  In  each  of  these 
communities  the  character  of  the  social  life  depends 
largely  upon  who  goes  and  who  stays.  There  are 
also  innumerable  other  factors  that  influence  the 
social  life  of  a  dwindling  New  England  community. 
If  summer  visitors  come  to  the  community  their 
character  affects  in  a  significant  way  the  social 
life  of  the  locality.  Another  important  influence 
upon  the  community  life  is  the  interest  or  indiffer- 
ence of  former  inhabitants  who  have  become 
successful  in  the  city.  The  economic  opportuni- 
ties as  determined  by  soil,  distance  to  markets,  and 
possibilities  of  co-operation,  available  capital,  etc., 
are  of  course  factors  of  the  greatest  importance. 

That  some  communities  in  the  oldest  agri- 
cultural sections  of  the  country  deserve  the  follow- 
ing description  given  by  Professor  Ross  is  not  open 
to  reasonable  discussion: 

The  continual  departure  of  young  people  who  would 
in  time  have  become  leaders  results  eventually  in  a  visible 
moral  decline  of  the  community.  The  roads  are  neglected, 
which  means  less  social  intercourse  and  a  smaller  turnout 
to  school  and  church  and  public  events.  School  buildings 
and  grounds  deteriorate,  and  the  false  idea  takes  root 
that  it  pays  to  hire  the  cheaper  teacher.  The  church  gets 
into  a  rut,  fails  to  start  up  the  social  and  recreative  activities 
which  bind  the  young  people  to  it,  and  presently  ceases  to 


38  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

be  a  force.  Frivolity  engrosses  the  young  because  no  one 
organizes  singing  schools,  literary  societies,  or  debating 
clubs.  Presently  a  generation  has  grown  up  that  has 
missed  the  uplifting  and  refining  influence  of  these  com- 
munal institutions.  There  is  a  marked  decline  in  standards 
of  individual  and  family  morality.  Many  couples  become 
too  self-centered  to  be  willing  to  rear  children.  It  is 
noticed  that  people  are  not  up  to  the  level  of  their  fore- 
fathers, that  they  are  coarser  in  their  tastes  and  care 
less  for  higher  things.  Vice  and  sensuality  are  not  so 
restrained  as  of  yore.  The  false  opinion  goes  abroad  that 
the  community  is  "degenerate"  and  therefore  past  redemp- 
tion.1 

A  social  loss  must  in  time  be  felt  seriously  by 
any  community  that  is  constantly  drained  of  its 
potential  leadership.  Those  who  would  have  been 
good  leaders  in  the  community  go  elsewhere.  In 
time  the  community  becomes  almost  destitute  of 
leaders.  More  often,  however,  there  results  a 
noticeable  decline  in  the  quality  of  the  leadership 
material  that  remains.  The  few  that  direct  public 
interests  are  small  men  and  women,  trivial  in  their 
interests,  without  vision  and  jealous  of  any  attempt 
on  the  part  of  " intruders"  to  bring  into  the  com- 
munity life  new  standards  and  new  ideas.  If  such 
communities  were  willing  to  support  efforts  for 
their  redemption  in  many  cases  this  reformation 
could  in  time  be  brought  about.  But  too  fre- 
quently their  energy  is  largely  used  in  complaining 

1  Ross,  "Folk  Depletion  as  a  Cause  of  Rural  Decline," 
Publications  of  the  American  Sociological  Society,  Vol.  XI,  p.  27. 


CITY  DRIFT  39 

of  the  present  and  pining  for  the  past  or  in  deadly 
family  or  political  feuds. 

There  is  a  common  and  erroneous  assumption 
that  the  rural  migration  always  represents  the 
departure  of  the  best  youth  of  the  community. 
This  is  not  necessarily  true.  Some  go  from  coun- 
try to  town  or  city,  who,  however  successful  from 
urban  standards,  are  no  asset  to  rural  life.  Born, 
perhaps,  with  the  gift  of  commercial  exploitation, 
they  leave  the  farm  which  they  would  never 
willingly  have  worked  by  the  sweat  of  their  own 
brows  and  enter  urban  business.  The  fortune  or 
reputation  they  win  in  the  city  does  not  by  any 
means  measure  the  size  of  the  loss  their  place  of 
birth  has  suffered  by  their  departure.  In  cases 
not  a  few  the  community  has  been  saved  from  a 
mortgage  profiteer,  or  a  socially  demoralizing  store- 
keeper, or  an  unwholesome  rural  politician.  It 
must  be  remembered  also  that  the  city  has  attrac- 
tion for  ne'er-do-wells,  and  for  the  young  that  love 
dissipation,  idleness,  and  crime.  From  some  com- 
munities we  find  that  the  best  and  the  worst  of 
the  young  people  go  to  the  cities.  From  others  the 
migration  is  fairly  representative  of  the  highest, 
the  lowest,  and  the  average  of  the  population. 

The  loss  of  population  of  greatest  social  con- 
cern is  composed  of  those  young  men  and  women 
who  are  well  fitted  for  successful  and  happy  careers 
in  an  agricultural  community.  Physically,  mor- 


4O  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

ally,  or  socially  they  frequently  suffer  from  living 
in  an  environment  for  which  they  are  not  natur- 
ally prepared.  It  is  these  young  people  in  each 
country  locality  that  furnish  the  promise  of  rural 
progress,  and  to  have  them  departing  in  large 
number  from  any  rural  community  is  a  social  mis- 
fortune. It  is  this  group  of  persons  that  needs  to 
be  encouraged  to  remain  on  the  farm,  and  all  the 
effort  looking  toward  the  conservation  of  rural 
population  must  be  concentrated  upon  producing 
in  the  country  such  economic  and  social  conditions  \ 
as  will  provide  for  young  men  and  women  fitted 
for  life  in  the  country /opportuni ties  that  will  make 
it  reasonable  for  them  to  remain  in  the  environ- 
ment in  accord  with  their  deepest  inclinations. 

With  the  development  of  modern  industrialism 
in  the  United  States  a  relative  decline  in  the  rural 
population  was  inevitable.  The  cities  grew  by 
leaps  and  bounds  under  the  stimulus  of  new  eco- 
nomic opportunities,  and  a  considerable  part  of  their 
population  increase  necessarily  had  to  come  from 
the  country.  The  commercial  advantages  of  a  city 
career  were  to  many  persons  born  in  the  country 
beyond  comparison  with  any  success  they  could 
obtain  in  a  strictly  agricultural  environment.  The 
social  satisfactions  of  an  urban  culture  also  drew 
many  from  the  country  who  from  a  mere  economic 
viewpoint  would  have  been  at  least  as  prosperous 
in  the  country  as  they  became  in  the  city.  The 


CITY  DRIFT  41 

modern  order  with  its  vast  and  various  forms  of 
manufacturing,  transportation,  and  trade  could 
not  be  developed  without  disturbing  the  rural 
structure  which  had  preceded.  Rural  migration, 
therefore,  in  a  great  degree  is  the  necessary  accom- 
paniment of  modern  industry. 

The  greater  efficiency  of  farm  labor  due  to  the 
increasing  use  of  machinery  without  question  also 
influenced  the  migration  from  the  rural  sections  to 
the  towns  and  cities.  A  smaller  number  of  persons 
was  needed  on  the  farm,  and  more  could  leave 
the  country  without  any  loss  to  production.  It  is 
also  true  that  the  machinery  is  in  part  the  result 
of  the  scarcity  of  farm  help  rather  than  the  cause  of 
it,  and  in  many  instances  without  doubt  even  with 
the  assistance  of  more  mechanical  advantages  the 
farmer  suffers  from  inadequate  help  and  the  quan- 
tity of  production  is  decreased. 

Neither  a  purely  agricultural  nor  an  industrial 
culture  is  socially  for  the  best  advantage  of  the 
nation.  It  is  desirable  rather  that  both  country 
and  city  prosper,  and  that  their  welfare  be  based 
upon  a  recognized  interrelation  of  interests.  The 
modern  population  problem  is  neither  rural  nor 
urban  but  that  of  keeping  city  and  country  people 
at  a  high  stage  of  culture  and  in  a  complementary 
occupational  relationship.  Even  though,  over  long 
stretches  of  time,  undue  development  of  urban 
industry  may  tend  to  draw  people  back  to  the 


42  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

country  on  account  of  economic  pressure,  it  does 
not  follow  that  the  two  major  lines  of  occupation 
will  usually  be  advantageously  balanced.  Food 
prices  are  influenced  by  world-conditions  rather 
than  by  the  demands  of  any  particular  nation,  and 
any  country  may  become  more  urban  than  is  best 
for  its  political  and  social  interests  and  still  obtain 
the  necessary  food  supply  from  other  countries 
which  in  turn  may  suffer  from  being  almost  entirely 
agricultural. 

REFERENCES  ON  CITY  DRIFT 

Chapin,  F.  S.,  "Immigration  as  a  Source  of  Urban  Increase," 
Quarterly  Publications  of  the  American  Statistical  Asso- 
ciation, September,  1914. 

Clark,  E.,  "Contributions  to  Urban  Growth,"  Quarterly 
Publications  of  the  American  Statistical  Association, 
September,  1915. 

Dicker-man,  G.  S.,  "The  Drift  to  the  Cities,"  Atlantic 
Monthly,  1913,  pp.  349-53- 

Gillette,  J.  M.,  Constructive  Rural  Sociology,  chap.  v. 
Sturgis  &  Walton,  1916. 

,  "A  Study  in  Social  Dynamics:  A  Statistical 

Determination  of  the  Rate  of  Natural  Increase  and 
of  the  Factors  Accounting  for  the  Increase  of  Popula- 
tion in  the  United  States,"  Quarterly  Publications  of 
the  American  Statistical  Association,  December,  1916. 

Hart,  H.  N.,  Selective  Migration  as  a  Factor  in  Child  Welfare 
in  the  United  States.  University  of  Iowa  Studies, 
Iowa  City,  1921. 

Hayes,  E.  C.,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Sociology,  chap.  iv. 
New  York:  Appleton,  1915. 


CITY  DRIFT  43 

Jefferson,  M.,  "A  Hopeful  View  of  the  Urban  Problem," 
Atlantic  Monthly,  1913,  pp.  353-58. 

MacDougall,  J.,  Rural  Life  in  Canada,  chaps,  i,  ii. 
Toronto:  Westminster  Co.,  1913. 

Merritt,  E.,  "The  Agricultural  Elements  in  the  Popula- 
tion," Quarterly  Publications  of  the  American  Statistical 
Association,  March,  1916. 

Park,  R.  E.,  "The  City:  Suggestions  for  the  Investigation 
of  Human  Behavior  in  the  City  Environment,"  Ameri- 
can Journal  of  Sociology,  March,  1915. 

Park,  R.  E.,  and  Burgess,  E.  W.,  Introduction  to  the  Science 
of  Sociology,  pp.  305-15.  Chicago:  University  of 
Chicago  Press,  1921. 

Ripley,  W.  Z.,  The  Races  of  Europe,  chap.  xx.  New  York: 
Apple  ton,  1899. 

Ross,  E.  A.,  "Folk  Depletion  as  a  Cause  of  Rural  Decline," 
Publications  of  the  American  Sociological  Society,  XI, 
21-30. 

,  Principles  of  Sociology,  chap.  ii.  New  York: 

Century  Co.,  1920. 


IV 

COUNTRY  LIFE  AND  THE  HERD 
INSTINCT 

The  city  drift  of  civilized  peoples  is  now  so 
universal  and  so  apparent  that  it  is  generally  recog- 
nized as  one  of  the  basic  facts  of  modern  social  life. 
Such  a  persistent  current  of  population-flow  chal- 
lenges the  attention  of  the  social  psychologist  as 
well  as  that  of  the  economist.  It  is  clear  that  the 
urban  environment  by  the  mere  fact  of  its  density 
of  population  captivates  a  multitude  of  people  who 
demand  satisfactions  that  the  country  with  its 
scattered  inhabitants  cannot  provide.  Any  investi- 
gation of  the  motives  that  bring  country  people  to 
the  city  or  keep  them  there  will  reveal  the  force  of 
the  social  appeal  of  the  urban  environment.  Men 
and  women  who  are  without  work  will  cling  to  the 
city  in  most  cases  even  when  offered  employment 
at  good  wages  in  the  country.  Others  under  stress 
of  circumstances  will  accept  work  in  the  country 
only  to  find  after  a  brief  period  that  they  cannot 
endure  an  environment  which  seems  so  empty  of 
interests  and  void  of  pleasures. 

The  following  incident  illustrates  this  attitude 
of  mind:  Governor  Eberhart  of  Minnesota  tells 
of  a  visit  he  made  to  Minneapolis,  in  a  harvest 

44 


COUNTRY  LIFE  AND  THE  HERD  INSTINCT  45 

emergency,  for  laborers  to  gather  wheat.1  The 
farmers  were  at  their  wits'  ends  to  save  their  crops. 
It  was  said  that  the  city  was  full  of  the  unemployed 
who  were  looking  for  jobs.  He  found  them,  as  he 
says,  seated  on  the  park  benches  in  all  sections  of 
the  city  and  overflowing  to  the  curbstones.  Work, 
it  seems,  could  not  be  found.  Some  of  the  men 
were  on  the  verge  of  starvation,  and  the  charitable 
organizations  of  the  city  were  taxed  to  their  utmost 
capacity  to  provide  for  them.  It  looked  as  if  his 
task  would  be  an  easy  one  and  he  could  take  back 
as  many  men  as  he  wished.  He  picked  out  his 
men  and  told  them  he  wanted  their  help.  They 
were  eager  for  the  chance  and  said  they  could  do 
anything.  He  spoke  of  the  service  he  had  in  mind, 
in  the  country  and  on  the  farms,  when  instantly 
their  faces  fell  and  they  were  as  glum  as  they  had 
been  before.  Their  answer  was:  "We  don't  want 
to  go  to  the  country,  boss.  We  don't  want  to  live 
on  a  farm.  There's  nothin'  for  us  there — no  life, 
no  entertainment,  no  lights — nothin'  but  monotony 
and  work.  We'd  rather  stay  in  the  city  and  starve 
than  go  to  the  country  and  have  nothin'  to  do  but 
work.  No,  sir,  we  stay  right  here."  And  stay  they 
did.  He  couldn't  get  one  of  them  to  go  with  him. 
The  farmers  had  to  harvest  their  wheat  as  best  they 
could  while  the  city  held  in  its  grasp,  unemployed, 
enough  men  to  garner  all  the  crops  of  the  state. 

'  Atlantic  Monthly,  September,  1913,  p.  351. 


46  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

The  psychological  causes  of  city  drift  are  soci- 
ally most  sinister.  They  are  insensible  to  condi- 
tions that  tend  by  the  operation  of  economic  law 
to  provide  a  reasonable  balance  between  rural  and 
urban  population,  and  thus  they  may  draw  people 
to  the  city  in  opposition  to  the  welfare  of  the  nation 
or  the  individual. 

Any  analysis  of  the  psychic  causes  of  rural 
migration  exposes  the  significance  of  the  gregarious 
impulse.  This  desire  to  be  with  the  herd  greatly 
influences  both  the  animal  and  man.  Perhaps 
the  unwillingness  to  be  cut  off  from  the  group 
association,  commonly  called  the  gregarious  in- 
stinct, can  be  still  further  analyzed  and  reduced 
to  simpler  elements,  but,  as  Watson  suggests,  the 
gregarious  behavior  is  so  characteristic  both  of 
animals  and  of  man  that  a  more  complete  analysis 
seems  out  of  place.1  By  grouping  the  activities 
resulting  from  the  impulse  to  associate  with  the 
herd  under  the  term  gregarious  instinct  justice  is 
done  to  the  inherent  craving  for  group  contact 
which  occupies  so  prominent  a  place  in  most  animal 
and  human  activities. 

The  individual  is  impelled  to  be  with  and  of 
the  herd.  Any  separation  from  the  group  means 
restlessness,  and  as  seen  in  the  case  of  solitary 
confinement  may  become  an  insufferable  punish- 

1  Watson,  Psychology  from  the  Standpoint  of  a  Behaviorist, 
p.  258. 


COUNTRY  LIFE  AND  THE  HERD  INSTINCT  47 

merit.  The  evolutionary  purpose  of  the  gregarious 
impulse  was  without  doubt  protection  of  the  indi- 
vidual. The  animal  outside  a  herd  increased  his 
danger  and  decreased  his  protection.  While  he 
kept  within  the  herd  he  enjoyed  the  protective 
resources  of  the  group  as  a  whole.  It  is  not  strange 
that  so  useful  an  attitude  for  the  animal  in  his 
struggle  for  survival  came  to  have  such  a  deter- 
mining control  over  the  behavior  of  most  animals. 
The  significance  of  the  gregarious  instinct  in  bio- 
logical history,  science  is  just  beginning  adequately 
to  recognize.  It  has  remained  for  Trotter  to  show 
how  prominent  and  how  important  the  gregarious 
conduct  is  in  the  social  life  of  the  animal  and  of 
man: 

A  study  of  bees  and  ants  shows  at  once  how  fundamen- 
tal the  importance  of  gregariousness  may  become.  The 
individual  in  such  communities  is  completely  incapable, 
often  physically,  of  existing  apart  from  the  community, 
and  this  fact  at  once  gives  rise  to  the  suspicion  that  even 
in  communities  less  closely  knit  than  those  of  the  ant  and 
the  bee,  the  individual  may  in  fact  be  more  dependent  on 
communal  life  than  appears  at  first  sight. 

Another  very  striking  piece  of  general  evidence  of  the 
significance  of  gregariousness  as  no  mere  late  acquirement 
is  the  remarkable  coincidence  of  its  occurrence  with  that 
of  exceptional  grades  of  intelligence  or  the  possibility  of 
very  complex  reactions  to  environment.  It  can  scarcely 
be  regarded  as  an  unmeaning  accident  that  the  dog,  the 
horse,  the  ape,  the  elephant,  and  man  are  all  social  animals. 
The  instances  of  the  bee  and  the  ant  are  perhaps  the  most 


48  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

amazing.  Here  the  advantages  of  gregariousness  seem 
actually  to  outweigh  the  most  prodigious  differences  of 
structure,  and  we  find  a  condition  which  is  often  thought  of 
as  a  mere  habit,  capable  of  enabling  the  insect  nervous 
system  to  compete  in  the  complexity  of  its  power  of  adapta- 
tion with  that  of  the  higher  vertebrates.1 

In  human  society  there  is  in  every  environment 
evidence  of  the  working  of  the  gregarious  instinct. 
The  urban  environment,  however,  provides  the 
most  favorable  circumstances  for  the  satisfaction 
of  the  gregarious  desires.  In  a  multiplicity  of 
forms  the  gregarious  impulse  is  awakened  and  satis- 
fied. This  fact  certainly  throws  light  upon  the 
rapid  growth  of  cities  and  even  suggests  that  one 
prominent  cause  of  the  migration  of  country  people 
to  the  cities  is  the  psychic  urge  of  the  gregarious 
instinct.  This  is  the  psychological  interpretation 
of  our  present  city  drift  given  by  McDougall. 
He  writes: 

It  is  sometimes  assumed  that  the  monstrous  and 
disastrous  growth  of  London  and  of  other  large  towns  is 
the  result  of  some  obscure  economic  necessity.  But,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  London  and  many  other  large  towns  have 
for  a  long  time  past  far  exceeded  the  proportions  that 
conduce  to  economic  efficiency  and  healthy  social  life, 
just  as  the  vast  herds  of  bison,  or  other  animals  referred 
to  in  chapter  ii,  greatly  exceed  the  size  necessary  for  mutual 
defence.  We  are  often  told  that  the  dulness  of  the  country 
drives  the  people  to  the  towns.  But  that  statement  inverts 

1 W.  Trotter,  Instincts  of  the  Herd  in  Peace  and  War,  pp. 
19-20. 


COUNTRY  LIFE  AND  THE  HERD  INSTINCT  49 

the  truth.  It  is  the  crowd  in  the  towns,  the  vast  human 
herd,  that  exerts  a  baneful  attraction  on  those  outside  it. 
People  have  lived  in  the  country  for  hundreds  of  generations 
without  finding  it  dull.  It  is  only  the  existence  of  the 
crowded  towns  that  creates  by  contrast  the  dulness  of  the 
country.  As  in  the  case  of  the  animals,  the  larger  the 
aggregation  the  greater  is  its  power  of  attraction;  hence, 
in  spite  of  high  rents,  high  rates,  dirt,  disease,  congestion 
of  traffic,  ugliness,  squalor,  and  sooty  air,  the  large  towns 
continue  to  grow  at  an  increasing  rate,  while  the  small 
towns  diminish  and  the  country  villages  are  threatened 
with  extinction. 

That  this  herding  in  the  towns  is  not  due  to  any  eco- 
nomic necessities  of  our  industrial  organization,  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  it  takes  place  to  an  equally  great  and 
regrettable  extent  in  countries  where  the  industrial  condi- 
tions are  very  different.  In  Australia,  where  everything 
favors  an  agricultural  or  pastoral  mode  of  life,  half  the 
population  of  a  continent  is  crowded  into  a  few  towns  on 
the  coast.  In  China,  where  industry  persists  almost  entirely 
in  the  form  of  handicrafts  and  where  economic  conditions 
are  extremely  different  from  our  own,  we  find  towns  like 
Canton  containing  three  million  inhabitants  crowded 
together  even  more  densely  than  in  London  and  under 
conditions  no  less  repulsive. 

In  England  we  must  attribute  this  tendency  chiefly 
to  the  fact  that  the  spread  of  elementary  education  and 
the  freer  intercourse  between  the  people  of  the  different 
parts  of  the  country  have  broken  down  the  bonds  of  custom 
which  formerly  kept  each  man  to  the  place  and  calling  of 
his  forefathers;  for  custom,  the  great  conservative  force 
of  society,  the  great  controller  of  individual  impulses, 
being  weakened,  the  deep-seated  instincts,  especially  the 
gregarious  instinct,  have  found  their  opportunity  to  deter- 


50  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

mine  the  choices  of  men.  Other  causes  have,  of  course, 
co-operated  and  have  facilitated  the  aggregations  of  popula- 
tion ;  but  without  the  instinctive  basis  they  would  probably 
have  produced  only  slight  effects  of  this  kind.1 

The  imperious  influence  of  the  gregarious 
instinct  in  developing  and  enforcing  group  soli- 
darity came  out  clearly  in  the  recent  world-war.  At 
the  cantonment,  where  human  individualism  was 
hammered  into  the  soldier-mold,  where  the  raw 
recruit  started  training,  the  herd  instinct  was 
dominant  in  every  department  of  the  men's  life. 
Anyone  who  visited  an  army  cantonment  must  have 
sensed  the  gregarious  atmosphere  of  army  service. 
For  a  few  men  this  was  the  most  trying  experience 
connected  with  the  service.  Others  found  in  it 
the  supreme  satisfaction.  Every  soldier  was  influ- 
enced by  it  more  or  less.  What  did  it  mean  to  the 
soldier  who  had  come  into  the  army  from  the  small 
country  place?  We  know,  as  a  result  of  what 
social  workers  among  the  soldiers  tell  us,  that  the 
country  boy  was  often  very  sensitive  to  this 
enormous  change  from  an  isolated  neighborhood 
to  the  closest  contact  possible,  in  a  community 
which  was  literally  a  real  city.  By  necessity  men 
from  the  country  were  forced  into  the  conditions 
of  city  life,  into  an  environment  that  was  more 
gregarious  than  any  normal  urban  center  experi- 
ences. What  result  did  this  have  upon  the  social 

'McDougall,  An  Introduction  to  Social  Psychology,  pp.  303-4. 


COUNTRY  LIFE  AND  THE  HERD  INSTINCT  5* 

needs  of  the  men  from  the  rural  districts  ?  It  was 
to  be  expected  that  many  of  them  would  not  be 
content  again  in  the  country.  They  developed 
cravings  that  the  country-life  environment  cannot 
satisfy.  For  this  reason  it  is  not  likely  that  the 
placing  of  former  soldiers  and  sailors  on  the  land 
will  have  in  any  country  the  success  desired.  Much 
will  depend  upon  who  is  selected  to  go  into  the 
country.  On  the  other  hand,  this  war  has  added 
to  the  city  drift  of  our  population  and  increased 
the  number  of  those  who  form  the  mobile  class  of 
rural  laborers. 

Although  modern  invention  has  created  circum- 
stances of  life  that  make  possible  more  comfort- 
able living  conditions  outside  great  cities  than  ever 
have  been  possible  in  the  past,  the  mass  of  people 
have  been  turned  from  the  individual  satisfactions 
made  available  and  have  sought  with  the  greatest 
intensity  gregarious  pleasures.  Men  and  women  as 
never  before  wish  to  feel  the  zest  of  herd  joys;  in 
both  work  and  play  they  detest  isolation.  The  city 
street  with  its  crowds  becomes  a  source  of  pleasur- 
able sensations  that  can  hardly  be  had  elsewhere. 
The  gregarious  satisfactions  furnished  by  the  urban 
environment  captivate  the  senses  quickly  and 
increase  their  tyranny  with  the  passing  of  time. 
Country-bred  men  and  women  have  been  known 
to  become  so  saturated  with  herd  cravings  in  a  few 
short  months  as  to  find  even  a  short  visit  to  their 


52  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

parents'  country  home  unendurable,  and  in  spite 
of  genuine  affection  they  have  sought  in  vain  to 
control  an  intense  restlessness  for  familiar  gregarious 
experiences.  The  old  community  seems  literally 
a  dead  thing;  a  social  situation  without  density  of 
population  lacks  meaning  and  animation.  The 
present  trend  appears  to  be  toward  a  self-chosen 
enslavement  of  the  mass  of  people  as  a  result  of  an 
unreasonable  emphasis  upon  gregarious  satisfac- 
tions. Public  thinking  and  public  activity  were 
never  more  influenced  by  gregarious  impulses. 
Nearly  every  type  of  propaganda  originates  in  the 
city  and  is  directed  from  it.  The  city  thinking 
which  assumes  national  dictatorship  is  permeated 
with  gregarious  superstition  and  concerns  itself  with 
gregarious  gossip  and  trivialities.  A  street  occur- 
rence of  little  or  no  significance  to  the  passerby 
will  quickly  gather  a  crowd  and  hold  a  busy  mer- 
chant on  an  important  mission  even  when  he  has 
no  chance  of  satisfying  his  gregarious  curiosity. 
The  urban-manipulated  fashion  due  to  the  gregar- 
ious servitude  readily  accepted  by  the  majority  of 
city  dwellers  grips  an  entire  territory  with  no  regard 
to  comfort,  health,  or  aesthetics. 

The  gregarious  instinct  of  man  has  been  greatly 
intensified  by  the  urban  standards  of  life  that  have 
been  popularized  by  the  magnitude  of  modern 
industrialism.  Into  every  country  home  goes 
today  as  a  result  of  the  power,  prestige,  and  avid- 


COUNTRY  LIFE  AND  THE  HERD  INSTINCT  53 

ity  of  the  modern  city  an  invitation  to  the  gratifica- 
tion of  gregarious  desires.  The  mail  that  brings 
contact  with  the  neighboring  city  and  thus  provides 
the  means  of  enjoying  in  the  country  some  of  the 
advantages  of  urban  culture  also  calls  attention  to 
the  dominance  of  city  standards.  Even  the  news 
of  the  day  must  be  read  in  an  urban  setting.  The 
city  reaches  into  every  hamlet  and  awakens  desires 
that  demand  for  their  final  satisfaction  life- 
conditions  that  only  the  town  or  city  can  provide. 

Governments  are  unable  to  disregard  the  herd 
desires  of  the  people  and  by  their  policies  magnify 
the  importance  of  the  gregarious  cravings  until  it 
becomes  a  politician's  axiom  that  provision  must 
be  made  for  the  useless  and  the  spectacular  even 
in  times  of  stress  if  only  a  multitude  of  people  may 
be  brought  into  the  streets  to  revel  in  the  joys  of 
closest  proximity.  Administrations  rise  and  fall 
by  their  ability  or  inability  to  make  a  gregarious 
appeal.  Riots  become  gregarious  intoxication. 
Calm  judgment  is  stolen  by  the  mob,  led  perhaps 
by  a  mere  youth,  as  was  reported  in  the  recent 
Omaha  race  riot,  and  a  mass  of  well-meaning 
men  and  women  carry  out  the  most  savage  and 
irrational  program  under  the  spell  of  a  gregarious 
debauchery. 

There  is  just  now  the  greatest  need  of  a  large 
portion  of  our  people  remaining  immune  to  the 
contagious  passion  for  gregarious  experiences. 


54  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

Individualism  is  in  danger  of  social  extinction. 
Social  forces,  organized  and  manipulated  with 
great  skill,  mold  people  into  group  personali- 
ties. Spiritual  freedom,  intellectual  individuality, 
is  being  crushed  by  the  stupid  opinion  of  the  mass, 
an  opinion  for  the  most  part  artificially  formed  by 
economic  or  intellectual  exploiters.  In  the  coun- 
try are  to  be  found  the  favorable  conditions  for 
individualism,  and  statesmanship  that  has  vision 
will  endeavor  to  protect  it  that  our  political  and 
social  policies  may  be  determined  in  part  by  influ- 
ences that  are  not  excessively  gregarious. 

The  gregarious  instinct  does  not  merely  tend 
to  draw  men  and  women  into  association;  it  also 
produces  psychic  sensitiveness  to  the  suggestions 
arising  from  the  herd.  The  individual  is  uneasy 
unless  he  can  enjoy  the  sense  of  oneness  with  the 
group.  The  gregarious  impulse  is  not  content 
merely  with  drawing  the  individual  into  a  social 
group.  It  also  operates  upon  the  psychic  life  and 
builds  up  a  state  of  mind  which  is  known  as  suggest- 
ibility. The  city  crowd  gives  us  a  perfect  illustra- 
tion of  a  gregarious  collection  of  persons  and  the 
resulting  condition  of  a  highly  developed  suggesti- 
bility. Suggestion,  although  rooted  in  the  gregari- 
ous impulse,  is  not  limited  to  contact  in  the  large 
group.  Whatever  association  there  may  happen 
to  be  will  afford  an  opportunity  for  the  mind 
states  of  his  fellows  to  penetrate  the  psychic  life 


COUNTRY  LIFE  AND  THE  HERD  INSTINCT  55 

of  the  individual  and  thus  bring  him  under  the 
sway  of  suggestion  to  the  degree  that  he  is  sensitive 
to  other  mental  attitudes. 

An  analysis  of  the  psychological  aspects  of  city 
drift  necessarily  includes  suggestion.  Suggestion 
may  be  defined  as  "an  indirect  appeal  which 
awakens  a  determining  tendency  in  such  a  way 
that  the  subject  has  more  the  sense  of  acting 
on  his  own  initiative  than  of  responding  to  exter- 
nal influence."1  Recent  psychological  discoveries 
have  given  emphasis  to  the  large  part  suggestion 
plays  in  the  careers  of  men  and  women,  especially 
when  it  is  allied  with  the  results  of  early  childhood 
impressions.  As  psychology  advances  toward  a 
causal  understanding  of  human  conduct,  more  and 
more  it  reveals  the  commanding  influence  that 
belongs  to  the  impressions  of  childhood  and  early 
youth.  It  is  increasingly  clear  that  many  of  the 
happenings  of  adult  life  can  be  explained  only 
when  they  are  brought  into  relation  with  the 
events  of  childhood. 

Early  experiences  that  prepare  the  way  for  the 
later  influence  of  suggestion  upon  adult  decisions 
contribute  their  share  of  the  causes  of  rural  migra- 
tion. Country-life  conditions  have  given  in  the 
past  the  suggestion  to  many  young  men  and  women 
that  farming  is  an  occupation  of  exceptional  toil. 

1  Gault,  "Suggestion  and  Suggestibility,"  American  Journal 
of  Sociology,  September,  1919. 


56  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

This  fact  is  often  revealed  by  the  statements  of 
city  people  who  were  brought  up  on  a  farm.  It 
is  one  of  the  most  common  reasons  given  for  the 
leaving  of  the  farm  life,  and  even  if  it  may  not  be 
the  chief  reason  for  the  removal  to  the  city  as  often 
as  is  affirmed,  it  surely  plays  a  significant  role  in 
rural  migration.  These  suggestions  that  farming 
has  excessive  need  of  toil  are  often  gathered  from 
the  remarks  of  parents  and  older  people  in  the 
presence  of  children.  Discouraged  and  discon- 
tented fathers  and  mothers  who  dwell  on  the  hard- 
ships of  country  life  originate  suggestions  that 
influence  some  of  the  young  people  who  leave  the 
country  for  the  town  and  city.  These  criticisms 
of  farming  and  of  country  community  conditions 
are  not  uncommon  among  country  people,  and 
children  who  often  hear  them  can  hardly  fail  to 
develop  antagonism  to  the  country  environment. 
Farming  is  the  only  occupation  where  dissatisfac- 
tion with  the  results  of  one's  labor  easily  passes 
into  an  attack  upon  the  environment  itself.  The 
farmer  cannot  change  his  occupation  as  a  rule  with- 
out moving  to  a  radically  different  environment. 
Personal  disappointments  and  dissatisfactions  in 
this  fashion  are  apt  finally  to  color  his  attitude 
toward  the  country  environment  itself. 

A  small  matter  that  may  at  times  lead  to  deep- 
set  dislike  of  the  country  is  the  grievance  the  school- 
boy feels  when  his  plans  for  a  holiday  are  interfered 


COUNTRY  LIFE  AND  THE  HERD  INSTINCT  57 

with  by  the  necessity  of  his  helping  his  father  on 
the  farm.  This  experience,  although  trivial  to  the 
adult,  may  linger  long  in  the  mind  of  a  child  and 
alienate  him  from  country-life  interests. 

Education  in  all  its  forms  is  ever  in  danger  in 
the  country  of  giving  the  growing  boy  and  girl 
urban  ambitions  and  urban  ideals.  Until  recently 
the  content  of  study  in  country  schools  insidiously 
underminded  the  natural  attractions  of  the  country. 
The  urban  viewpoint  was  both  consciously  and 
unconsciously  emphasized  by  the  teacher,  who  was 
generally  ill  prepared  to  interpret  the  value  of 
country  interests  to  the  children,  and  who  was  her- 
self often  dissatisfied  with  the  conditions  of  life  in 
the  country.  As  has  long  been  recognized,  the 
preacher  also  frequently  brought  to  the  young 
people  of  his  church  urban  attitudes  and  urban 
cravings  that  added  to  the  appeal  of  the  cities  and 
thus  encouraged  city  drift.  If 'these  suggestions 
from  teachers  and  minister  induced  the  boy  and 
girl  most  fitted  for  urban  life  to  leave  home  for  a 
proper  field  of  activity,  it  is  also  true  that  the 
same  influence  sent  to  the  city  others  who  naturally 
would  have  remained  on  the  farm  and  prospered. 

Considerable  progress  during  -the  last  decade  has 
been  made  in  the  correction  of  this  urbanizing  influ- 
ence of  the  public  schools  of  the  country.  Teachers 
have  been  prepared  to  appreciate  country-life 
values  and  have  become  sympathetic  toward  the 


58  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

opportunities  of  the  open  country.  Preachers  also 
have  become  conscious  of  the  danger  of  the  "urban 
mind  "  and  in  many  cases  have  acted  as  interpreters 
to  country  people  of  the  resources  and  satisfactions 
of  rural  life.  However,  there  are  still  teachers  in 
country  schools  and  preachers  in  country  churches 
who  have  their  faces  set  toward  the  city,  and  whose 
influence  necessarily  reinforces  the  movement  of 
the  country  population  to  the  cities. 

The  urban  advantage  in  social  prestige  has  influ- 
enced rural  people  through  suggestion  and  has 
added  another  motive  for  moving  to  the  city.  The 
city  furnishes  the  conditions  for  political  and  com- 
mercial distinction  and  for  the  accumulation  of 
great  wealth.  Production  by  machinery  affords 
opportunity  for  administrative  ability  and  tech- 
nical skill,  and  the  executive  and  the  artisan  are 
the  best  paid  in  their  respective  classes.  These 
representatives  of  modern  industry  by  their  large 
earnings  set  the  standard  for  brain  and  hand  work, 
and  both  of  them  flourish  only  in  the  urban  envi- 
ronment. Unconsciously  these  two  classes  are 
accepted  as  typical  illustrations  of  the  advantages 
of  urban  opportunity,  for  the  standard  of  life  of 
the  unskilled  laborers  in  the  cities  has  never 
succeeded  in  offsetting  the  prestige  created  by  the 
spectacular  wealth  of  the  man  of  "big  business" 
or  by  the  high  wages  of  the  skilled  worker.  The 
rural  occupation,  on  the  other  hand,  has  never 


COUNTRY  LIFE  AND  THE  HERD  INSTINCT  59 

received  a  just  social  appreciation.  Unfortunately, 
farming  permits  a  man  with  little  ability,  shiftless 
in  his  habits  and  lacking  energy,  somehow  to  exist 
on  a  low  standard  of  life,  and  this  type  in  the 
country  has  attracted  greater  attention  than  he 
deserves  and  has  given  farming  less  prestige  as  an 
occupation  than  belongs  to  it.  The  hazardous 
character  of  farming,  the  effect  of  season  and 
natural  conditions  that  cannot  wholly  be  antici- 
pated even  by  the  most  efficient  of  farmers,  makes 
it  impossible  for  the  intelligent  farmer  to  demon- 
strate the  full  measure  of  his  superiority.  Thus 
rural  efficiency  never  gets  all  the  social  recogni- 
tion to  which  it  is  entitled. 

The  complete  force  of  urban  suggestion  along 
lines  of  occupational  prestige  cannot  be  revealed 
until  it  is  frankly  admitted  how  much  of  late  social 
thinking  has  discounted  manual  labor.  This  fact 
is  especially  disclosed  by  the  increasing  difficulty  of 
getting  women  to  hire  out  to  do  housework  even 
when  the  economic  returns  offered  are  greater  than 
they  can  obtain  in  the  other  occupations  open  to 
them.  In  somewhat  the  same  way,  but  fortunately 
in  less  degree,  there  has  grown  up  in  the  social  mind 
an  estimation  of  occupational  desirability  which  has 
placed  the  professions  and  even  clerking  above 
farming.  Perhaps  the  need  of  wearing  "working 
clothes"  when  farming  has  had  something  to  do 
with  this  creation  of  false  occupational  color. 


60  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

Its  superior  community  resources  have  also 
given  the  city  a  prestige  which  enters  country 
thinking  and  suggests  the  inferiority  of  the  rural 
environment.  The  city  is  accepted  as  the  com- 
munity standard  merely  because  the  gathering  of 
population  into  narrow  limits  makes  possible  a 
vast  number  of  social  enterprises. 

The  superiority  of  the  city  is  by  no  means 
accepted  by  all  country  people.  Many  react  to 
the  suggestion  negatively;  the  evils  of  the  urban 
environment  are  given  excessive  emphasis.  Psy- 
chologically, however,  this  hostility  to  the  city 
civilization  often  reveals  the  deeply  felt  force  of 
urban  dominance  which  is  resented  but  which 
nevertheless  is  not  without  influence. 

A  profound  psychological  cause  of  city  drift  is 
the  increasing  modern  appetite  for  exciting  sense 
stimulation.  This  craving  is  more  significant  than 
that  which  springs  from  any  instinct,  for  it  repre- 
sents the  original  need  of  the  mind.  Consciousness 
demands  stimulation,  for  only  so  can  it  function 
and  fulfil  its  biological  destiny.  It  is  the  business 
of  mind  to  attend.  By  its  activities  in  response 
to  stimuli  from  the  environment  the  mind  both 
gathers  knowledge  and  obtains  inward  satisfactions. 

The  present  craving  among  occidental  peoples 
for  intense  quantitative  sense  experiences  is  of 
course  no  new  human  experience.  The  new  ele- 
ment in  the  situation  consists  of  the  forms  it  takes 


COUNTRY  LIFE  AND  THE  HERD  INSTINCT  61 

as  a  result  of  the  wonderful  opportunities  for 
violent  stimulation  made  possible  by  applied 
science.  The  intensity,  the  variety,  and  the 
accessibility  of  myriad  forms  of  exciting  stimula- 
tion, artificially  created  by  modern  industry,  con- 
stitute a  new  order  of  human  experience.  The 
new  opportunities  bring  forth  new  needs  until  there 
results  an  unparalleled  appetite  for  stimulation  of 
quantitative  character.  Much  of  the  labor  and 
much  of  the  wealth  of  this  age  are  consumed  in 
feeding  this  world-wide  hunger  for  intense,  arti- 
ficial sense  experience.  Science  has  developed  more 
rapidly  than  has  man's  appreciation  of  the  best 
uses  of  its  enormous  resources. 

It  is  only  the  city,  however,  that  can  furnish 
the  necessary  conditions  for  the  largest  amount 
of  this  type  of  quantitative  sense  experience.  The 
country  by  contrast  seems  to  those  who  have  once 
tasted  with  satisfaction  urban  intensities  a  dull 
place  with  little  that  invigorates  the  mind.  People 
in  the  city  crowd  together  not  merely  because  they 
are  gregarious.  The  close  contact,  the  massing 
of  persons,  also  makes  possible  a  multitude  of 
quantitative  sense  pleasures  that  can  by  no  means 
be  duplicated  in  the  country.  The  country  may 
more  and  more  obtain  the  advantages  of  modern 
invention,  but  its  meager  population  forbids  its 
ever  competing  at  this  point  favorably  with  the 
city.  It  must  lag  behind  in  its  ability  to  supply 


62  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

exciting  experiences  on  a  scale  easily  provided  by 
urban  environment.  It  has  a  handicap  imposed 
by  the  inherent  limitations  of  rural  life  and  in  this 
age  a  handicap  of  large  social  significance. 

The  appeal  of  city  pleasures  goes  out  to  rural 
people.  By  word  of  mouth,  by  the  daily  press, 
by  commercial  propaganda,  through  advertising, 
the  attractions  of  the  city  along  all  lines  of  quanti- 
tative sense  experiences  are  brought  to  the  notice  of 
country  people.  The  force  of  this  in  turning  many 
toward  the  cities  is  not  likely  to  be  over-estimated. 

We  have  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  appeal 
of  quantitative  stimulation  will  have  less  influence 
over  the  next  generation.  The  opposite  seems 
liable  to  prove  true.  The  precocious  introduction 
given  most  children  to  the  exciting  pleasures  of 
the  moving  picture,  the  automobile,  and  other 
recent  additions  to  society's  equipment  for  quanti- 
tative experiences  will  surely  create  in  them  an 
appetite  more  exacting  than  that  of  their  parents 
for  conditions  of  life  that  necessarily  can  be  had 
only  in  the  cities.  The  next  decade,  unless  in 
some  way  there  can  come  a  reaction  against  pres- 
ent tendencies,  is  destined  to  see  urban  life  adding 
to  its  social  attractiveness  and  rural  isolation 
becoming  more  and  more  oppressive  for  an  increas- 
ing number  of  people. 

The  rural  environment  is  by  no  means  destitute 
of  fascinating  sense  stimuli.  It  naturally  abounds 


COUNTRY  LIFE  AND  THE  HERD  INSTINCT  63 

in  interests.  All  it  requires  is  capacity  for  appre- 
ciation. The  tasks  of  farming  may  be  either  pure 
toil  or  achievement.  The  decision  is  determined 
by  the  attitude  of  the  worker.  Farming  is  really 
less  monotonous  than  the  work  of  most  city 
dwellers;  it  can  be  carried  on  with  a  zest  difficult 
to  duplicate  in  most  urban  employment.  The 
great  stretches  of  land  also  may  seem  either 
dreary  spaces,  mere  fields  of  corn  or  wheat,  or 
territory  filled  with  meaning.  Everything  depends 
upon  the  interpreter.  The  country  environment 
has  an  unquestioned  supremacy  in  poetry,  free- 
dom, and  closeness  to  nature,  and  ingenuity.  It 
is  the  spirit  of  the  age  that  is  robbing  it  of  much  of 
its  attractiveness. 

The  antidote  is  better  education.  In  the  cities 
and  in  the  country  there  is  need  of  educational 
reconstruction.  Instruction  must  have  more  social 
purpose,  more  social  motive.  It  must  loosen  the 
artificial  grip  that  commerce  now  has  over  the 
desires  of  people  everywhere.  Our  wants  are 
largely  made  for  us  by  the  standards  put  upon  us 
by  clever  suggestion.  Education  has  largely  ceased 
to  influence  the  purposes  of  life;  it  is  content 
merely  to  furnish  tools.  We  are  taught  to  read 
by  the  schools,  but  what  we  read  in  the  schools  has 
very  little  significance  for  our  manner  of  life. 
Human  wants,  however,  need  not  be  so  exclusively 
material  as  in  recent  years  they  have  been. 


64  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

Indeed,  the  reaction  against  the  tyranny  that 
quantitative  stimulation  has  been  exercising, 
largely  because  of  our  social  immaturity,  has 
already  appeared.  Our  present  industrial  dis- 
content contains  suggestions  of  a  demand  for  a 
democratic  culture.  There  is  reason  to  suppose 
that  sooner  or  later  good  taste  will  become  more 
popular.  When  public  opinion  is  equal  to  the 
discrimination  required  to  make  use  of  modern 
machinery  without  crushing  social  sanity  there 
will  surely  come  a  reconstruction  of  human 
pleasures  and  human  demands.  This  reform, 
which  the  very  stability  of  society  requires,  will 
restore  to  the  rural  environment  in  reasonable 
degree  its  peculiar  and  wholesome  appeal. 

Rural  education,  in  addition  to  its  greater 
socialization,  must  become  more  capable.  Life  in 
the  country  need  not  be  meager  nor  hard.  Inven- 
tion furnishes  country  people  with  the  great  major- 
ity of  really  important  mechanical  resources.  Edu- 
cation that  can  reveal  to  men  and  women  in  the 
country  the  things  in  their  life  of  real  worth  will 
enable  the  majority  of  country  people  to  enjoy 
their  environment  and  not  hanker  after  the  peculiar 
experiences  possible  only  in  great  cities.  In  other 
words,  country  people  may  discover  how  to  appreci- 
ate their  own  conditions  while  sharing,  as  their 
fathers  could  not,  a  great  many  of  the  advantages 
of  city  society.  Even  when  the  country  environ- 


COUNTRY  LIFE  AND  THE  HERD  INSTINCT  65 

ment  is  interpreted  to  its  utmost  rural  people  will 
not  in  great  numbers  endure  psychic  isolation. 
City  contacts  will  be  maintained  and  multiplied. 
Even  the  crossroads  grocer  is  now  in  peril  because 
so  much  of  rural  trade  goes  into  the  city.  It  is 
the  crude  gregarious  appeal,  the  mere  love  of 
crowded  streets,  not  city  contact  but  city  herd 
life,  that  steals  the  values  of  country-life  environ- 
ment. Rural  education  in  all  its  forms,  for  children 
and  for  adults,  needs  more  efficiency  in  helping 
country  people  adapt  themselves  happily  to  their 
surroundings,  but  it  must  not  antagonize  urban 
and  rural  contact.  If  living  in  the  country  comes 
to  mean  merely  thinking  in  neighborhood  terms, 
we  can  populate  the  country  districts  only  by 
creating  a  dull  American  peasant  class. 


REFERENCES  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE  AND  THE 
HERD  INSTINCT 

Cities  Committee  of  the  Sociological  Society.     "A  Rustic 

View  of  War  and  Peace,"  Papers  for  the  Present,  Third 

Series,  No.  8.     London:   Headley  Bros. 
Edman,  I.,  Human  Traits  and  Their  Social  Significance, 

chap.  v.     Boston:  Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  1920. 
Groves,  E.  R.,  Rural  Problems  of  Today,  chap.  ix.    New 

York:  Association  Press,  1918. 

— •,    "The    Urban    Complex,"    Sociological    Review, 

autumn,  1920. 
McDougall,    W.,   An   Introduction   to   Social   Psychology, 

chap.  xii.    Boston:  Luce  &  Co.,  1918. 


66  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

Tansley,  A.  G.,  The  New  Psychology  and  Its  Relation  to 
Life,  chaps,  xix,  xx.  London:  Allen  &  Unwin,  1920. 

Tead,  O.,  Instincts  in  Industry,  chap.  viii.  Boston:  Hough- 
ton  Mifflin  Co.,  1918. 

Trotter,  W.,  Instincts  of  the  Herd  in  Peace  and  War.  New 
York:  Macmillan,  1917. 


THE  INSTINCT  OF  SELF-ASSERTION 

The  instinct  of  self-assertion  is  one  of  the  most 
powerful  and  important  of  all  the  instincts  that 
influence  man's  social  behavior.  Although  the 
instinct  appears  to  emphasize  the  individual  in 
contrast  with  others,  it  nevertheless  demands  a 
social  background.  The  group  is  present  as  the 
field  of  self-assertion,  for  obviously  one  cannot 
assert  himself  except  in  association  with  other 
persons.  The  instinct  of  self-assertion  expresses 
itself  in  varied  forms.  For  example,  we  have  the 
positive  and  negative  attitudes  of  self-assertion. 
Both  attitudes  attempt  to  magnify  the  individual 
and  attract  attention  from  his  fellows.  In  the 
one  case  attention  is  sought  by  aggressive  activities, 
and  in  the  other  by  an  assumption  of  meekness 
or  self-abasement,  which  attempts  to  accentuate 
the  individual  in  contrast  with  his  associates. 

Self-assertion  has  been  thoroughly  imbedded 
in  human  nature  by  the  processes  of  selection  and 
survival.  Any  individual  or  racial  deficiency  in 
this  instinct  in  evolutionary  history  has  surely 
been  a  very  great  handicap.  Modern  man  repre- 
sents a  line  of  descent  which  has  so  thoroughly 
established  the  instinct  of  self-assertion  that  no 

67 


68  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

normal  individual  is  destitute  of  it.  Indeed  it 
occupies  so  large  a  place  in  the  average  life  that 
modern  society  constantly  tries  to  control  and 
prevent  its  excessive  expression.  From  the  earliest 
years  of  childhood  to  some  extent  every  develop- 
ing life  comes  in  contact  with  influences  that 
deliberately  aim  to  lessen  and  socialize  self- 
assertion.  A  large  part  of  the  practical  difficulties 
of  child-training  centers  about  this  process  of 
teaching  the  individual  to  suppress,  at  least  so 
far  as  outside  evidence  is  concerned,  the  powerful 
impulses  that  he  feels  of  self-assertive  character. 

The  difficulty  of  forcing  self-assertion  to  keep 
within  bounds  is  revealed  by  the  experience  of  the 
neurotic.  Recent  psychology,  especially  psycho- 
analytic psychology,  bears  testimony  to  the  innu- 
merable evils  that  arise  in  the  process  of  limiting 
self-assertion.  Unhappy  obstacles  to  reasonable 
self-assertive  satisfaction  operating  in  early  child- 
hood may  create  cravings  for  power  which  appear 
in  adult  life  without  hope  of  attainment.  The 
individual  goes  through  life  hungering  for  self- 
assertive  satisfactions  that  for  one  reason  or  other 
are  denied  him.  On  the  other  hand  easy  success 
in  the  early  years  or  exaggeration  of  one's  impor- 
tance as  a  result  of  foolish  pampering  and  flattery 
on  the  part  of  parents  may  build  up  a  self- 
estimation  which  cannot  withstand  the  shock  of 
adult  disenchantment.  The  individual  under  such 


THE  INSTINCT  OF  SELF-ASSERTION  69 

conditions  frequently  is  unable  to  meet  reality  and 
escapes  from  the  difficulty  of  accepting  a  correct 
estimation  of  self  by  the  development  of  a  neurotic 
disorder.  Thus  he  finds  satisfaction  for  his  self- 
assertion  without  any  limitation.  He  enters  the 
world  of  magic.  He  creates  pleasing  circumstances 
and  struts  in  the  fictitious  world  which  he  has 
made  as  his  refuge  from  the  bitter  facts  of  life. 
As  Adler  has  pointed  out  in  his  important  contribu- 
tion to  psychoanalytic  psychology,  self-assertion 
may  operate  in  two  ways  in  the  reactions  of  the 
individual  to  his  handicaps  and  limitations.  If 
self-assertion  has  momentum  enough  to  push  the 
individual  through  his  difficulty,  he  comes  forth 
with  increased  power  and  self-confidence.  By  thus 
attaining  the  masculine  protest  against  obstacles, 
he  gives  his  self-assertive  tendency  an  outlet  which 
promises  a  large  use  of  the  individual's  opportuni- 
ties. But  if  the  difficulties  are  not  surmounted, 
and  the  self-assertion  suffers  defeat,  a  perma- 
nent injury  may  result.  It  may  be  years  before 
the  seriousness  of  the  experience  reveals  itself. 
Sooner  or  later,  however,  the  life  bears  witness 
to  the  tremendous  significance  in  each  individual 
career  of  any  maladjustment  of  the  instinct  of 
self-assertion.  A  nervous  malady  may  appear 
which  had  its  origin  in  the  crushing  of  the  crav- 
ings for^power  experienced  way  back  in  child- 
hood. 


70  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

Self-assertion  has  played  a  large  part  in  social 
evolution.  From  the  beginning  one  of  the  motives 
which  led  men  to  more  complex  and  stable  forms 
of  social  organization  was  the  desire  of  the  master- 
ful persons  in  places  of  authority  for  increased 
power.  The  family  patriarch  easily  developed 
into  the  clan  leader;  the  tribal  warrior  naturally 
became  the  king;  the  king  and  his  counselors  sel- 
dom escaped  the  appetite  for  more  prestige,  greater 
territory,  more  authority,  larger  recognition.  Out 
of  the  clash  of  political  rivalry  and  the  competi- 
tion of  assertive  men  much  of  social  progress  got 
its  impulse.  Social  changes  have  never  eliminated 
this  striving  for  power  on  the  part  of  those  who 
have  forced  themselves  to  the  front,  but  fortunately 
the  form  of  the  struggle  has  from  time  to  time 
changed  under  the  influence  of  social  opinion. 

In  the  urban  environment  it  is  easy  to  see  the 
large  place  that  self-assertion  holds.  Competition 
in  the  modern  world  is  another  word  for  the  conflict 
between  persons  who  under  the  impulse  of  self- 
assertion  find  themselves  clashing  as  to  personal 
interests.  No  characteristic  of  the  city  stands  out 
more  clearly  as  the  very  atmosphere  of  the  life  of 
the  people  than  does  competition.  It  appears  in 
every  form.  It  is  present  in  industry,  in  trade,  in 
sport,  in  cultural  rivalry,  in  class  organizations, 
and  in  politics.  There  is  no  city  dweller  but  finds 
himself  drawn  into  some  highly  competitive  rela- 


THE  INSTINCT  OF  SELF-ASSERTION  71 

tionship.  Even  the  criminal  gets  part  of  his  zest 
from  the  satisfaction  it  brings  him  to  match  his 
wits  against  those  of  the  guardians  of  property 
and  order. 

Naturally  the  city  acts  as  a  magnet  in  attract- 
ing into  its  life  and  holding  within  itself  those  who 
especially  enjoy  the  competitive  struggle.  The 
influence  of  the  city  at  this  point  stretches  over  a 
wide  territory  and  invites  the  highly  assertive 
country  and  village  youth  in  his  early  ambitious 
years  to  try  his  fortune  in  the  urban  setting  where 
conditions  are  more  to  his  liking.  Merely  by 
bringing  together  such  an  enormous  number  of 
persons  particularly  self-assertive,  the  city  wins 
for  itself  social  leadership,  prestige,  and  increasing 
power.  Its  reputation  still  more  advertises  its 
competitive  opportunities  and  adds  increasingly  to 
the  migration  of  persons  who  cannot  find  a  reason- 
able field  for  their  self-assertive  needs  in  the  rural 
or  village  environment. 

Man  does  not  merely  go  to  the  city  and  express 
the  self-assertion  already  developed.  Whatever 
his  degree  of  self-assertiveness,  originally,  the 
instinct  is  stimulated  to  still  further  growth  by 
city  influences.  He  who  enters  the  urban  environ- 
ment from  the  country  or  village  probably  is  most 
sensitive  to  the  stimulating  competition  of  his 
new  environment.  The  city  man  does  not  escape 
the  same  influence.  Every  ambitious  person  re- 


72  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

spends  to  the  constant  and  permeating  atmosphere. 
The  suggestions  that  call  forth  the  aggressiveness 
of  the  individual  are  often  unconscious,  but  they 
are  for  that  reason  not  at  all  weaker.  Only  those 
who  have  given  up  the  struggle  and  who  feel  them- 
selves victims  in  the  ever-present  contest  fail  to 
respond  to  the  urban  stimulations.  Thus  the  city 
is  a  training-school  for  the  utmost  development  of 
the  self-seeking  instincts.  One  cannot,  however, 
appreciate  the  full  significance  of  urban  competition 
if  he  thinks  of  it  only  as  a  contest  between  persons. 
The  very  nature  of  the  struggle  forces  individuals 
to  group  themselves  for  mutual  protection,  and  a 
great  part  of  city  competition  is  between  groups 
and  classes  and  organizations.  The  more  complex 
our  civilization  becomes,  the  more  highly  organ- 
ized and  the  more  self-conscious  many  of  these 
groups  become.  Any  attempt  to  understand  the 
thinking  of  city  people  must  take  into  account 
the  large  place  group  consciousness  holds  in  the 
make-up  of  the  individual.  More  and  more  one  is 
forced  to  think  in  terms  of  the  group.  Class  con- 
sciousness deepens  and  becomes  more  vigorous. 
One  feels  himself  drawing  closer  to  those  who  are 
allied  with  him  in  common  interests  while  at  the 
same  time  a  greater  gulf  divides  him  from  those 
with  whom  he  is  in  struggle.  Everything  con- 
spires to  bring  forth  the  spirit  of  competition.  A 
large  part  of  this  aggressiveness  is  fundamentally 


THE  INSTINCT  OF  SELF-ASSERTION  73 

for  the  purpose  of  self -protection.  One  attacks  the 
opponent  that  he  may  not  himself  be  placed  in 
a  position  of  weakness.  The  aggressive  attitude 
becomes  a  method  of  class  strategy.  The  city  is 
filled  to  overflowing  with  innumerable  movements, 
all  directed  by  aggression  originating  from  a  variety 
of  sources.  The  individual,  as  he  moves  about  in 
his  daily  work,  his  recreation,  his  habitual  associa- 
tions, imbibes  from  every  quarter  suggestions  that 
he  contribute  as  far  as  possible  to  the  particular 
aggressions  that  win  his  sympathy.  Doubtless  this 
is  one  of  the  most  fascinating  elements  in  urban 
life,  and  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  men  and 
women  who  love  struggle,  who  covet  self-assertion, 
whether  it  be  expressed  in  individual  or  group 
form,  will  find  the  city  increasingly  satisfactory, 
and  the  country  place  an  impossible  environment. 
At  this  point  we  need  to  notice  that  a  great 
part  of  personal  aggression  obtains  its  satisfaction 
by  identifying  itself  with  the  masterful  personalities 
who  lead  in  the  several  groups  and  organizations. 
The  gregarious  leader  who  wins  in  any  movement  a 
place  of  authority  and  influence,  by  his  very  suc- 
cesses wins  the  admiration  of  those  who  cannot 
in  the  same  degree  satisfy  their  personal  ambitions, 
but  who  do  identify  the  successes  of  their  chosen 
leader  with  their  own  unsatisfied  cravings.  This  is 
largely  the  explanation  of  the  partisanships  and 
enthusiasms  that  flourish  in  the  urban  environment. 


74  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

To  be  sure,  country  people  also  can  identify  them- 
selves in  the  same  manner  with  group  leaders,  but 
their  opportunity  is  relatively  smaller,  and  they 
seldom  have  the  sense  of  personal  contact.  The 
city  man  is  likely  to  choose  for  this  vicarious  satis- 
faction of  the  aggressive  instinct  a  hero  whom  he 
can  see,  and  this  intensifies  his  aggressive  emotions 
and  brings  them  greater  satisfaction.  The  least 
harmful  and  the  most  noticeable  expression  of  this 
gathers  about  sport,  and  no  one  who  has  ever  wit- 
nessed the  city  crowd  at  the  big  game  or  before  the 
bulletin  board  can  fail  to  recognize  the  deep  satis- 
faction that  comes  to  those  who  in  rivalry  and 
competition  enjoy  the  sense  of  identification. 
Thus  the  events  of  city  life  constantly  minister  to 
the  deep-seated  cravings  for  self-assertion. 

It  is  not  true,  however,  that  the  city  literally 
strips  the  country  of  all  its  competitive  types. 
Such  a  condition  would  be  impossible.  Even 
though  the  most  ambitious  migrate,  some  remain 
who  are  relatively  more  assertive  than  their  fellows. 
It  is  also  true  that  many  are  to  be  found  in  the 
country  who  are  in  the  highest  degree  self-assertive, 
but  who,  for  one  reason  or  another,  have  never  had 
their  instincts  awakened,  or  have  not  had  the 
opportunity  to  change  the  rural  environment  for 
the  urban.  As  a  rule,  however,  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  the  general  level  of  competitive  activities  is 
lowered  by  the  movement  of  the  most  aggressive 


THE  INSTINCT  or  SELF-ASSERTION  75 

individuals  from  the  country  to  the  city.  Self- 
assertion,  therefore,  has  to  take  more  trivial  forms. 
The  scale  is  reduced.  This,  of  course,  does  not 
mean  that  the  instinct  occupies  a  less  significant 
place  in  the  life  of  the  individual,  but  merely  that 
the  form  it  takes  socially  is  qualitatively  different. 
Here  we  have  an  explanation  of  some  of  the  most 
unhappy  occurrences  of  rural  life.  Family  compe- 
tition may  become  excessive  and  develop  into 
family  feuds.  Differences  of  policy  between  indi- 
viduals become  the  basis  for  a  life-long  struggle, 
in  which  each  person  spoils  his  best  possibilities  in 
a  foolish  contest.  The  social  ambition  of  one  self- 
seeking  person  collides  with  an  equal  ambition  on 
the  part  of  a  neighbor,  and  both  waste  their 
resources  in  what  to  an  outsider  seems  a  senseless 
competition.  Such  happenings  cannot  be  under- 
stood unless  one  sees  in  them  the  revelation  of  an 
enormous  need  in  the  rural  environment  for  satis- 
factory ways  of  expressing  self-assertion. 

The  villager  and  the  countryman  are  often 
psychically  estranged  and  develop  feelings  of  hos- 
tility. Though  this  may  originate  in  a  collision  of 
economic  interests,  nevertheless  there  is  always 
present  a  certain  degree  of  self-assertion.  The 
farmer  frequently  complains  of  the  superiority  that 
the  villager  assumes.  It  is  the  self-assertive  farmer 
who  feels  the  injury.  If  the  feeling  of  superiority 
is  really  present  in  the  mind  of  the  villager,  it  is 


76  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

rooted  in  the  same  instinct.  The  contact  of  coun- 
try and  village  children,  teachers  tell  us,  occasion- 
ally shows  the  same  collision  of  self-assertion  which 
exists  too  often  between  the  villager  and  the  coun- 
tryman. 

This  sense  of  superiority  of  the  persons  of  the 
village  is  sometimes  based  upon  the  greater  contact 
of  the  villager  with  the  neighboring  city.  He 
prides  himself  upon  sharing  the  larger  cultural 
opportunities  of  the  city,  and  puts  in  contrast  the 
lesser  privileges  of  the  man  of  the  country.  The 
tables,  however,  are  frequently  reversed,  particularly 
when  prosperous  farmers  surround  an  industrial 
village  where  the  standard  of  living  of  the  villagers 
is  much  below  that  of  the  farmers  of  the  open 
country.  It  is  then  that  the  farmers  look  down 
upon  the  villagers  and  the  farmers'  children  assume 
superiority.  Of  course,  the  same  instinct,  self- 
assertion,  is  at  work,  and  unfortunately  to  such  a 
degree  as  often  to  forbid  wholesome  community 
life.  The  struggle  between  the  village  and  the 
rural  group  which  shows  itself  often  in  a  spectacular 
way  in  the  New  England  town  meeting  is  not 
merely  a  contest  with  reference  to  taxation  policies, 
but  a  group  struggle  in  which  class  consciousness 
plays  a  very  prominent  part.  Once  the  two  groups 
are  lined  up  on  any  specific  proposition,  reasoning 
is  of  little  avail.  Each  wishes  success  because  the 
self-assertion  of  the  group  has  been  awakened. 


THE  INSTINCT  OF  SELF-ASSERTION  77 

Under  such  circumstances  passion  shows  itself  to 
a  degree  that  cannot  be  explained  by  the  signifi- 
ficance  of  the  issues  at  stake. 

It  is  a  happy  thing  that  rural  statesmanship 
in  recent  years  has  made  possible  so  much  whole- 
some industrial  rivalry  between  farmers.  The 
more  dangerous  competition  is  diluted  and  becomes 
useful  rivalry.  This  affords  for  persons  who  have 
not  grown  excessively  competitive  as  much  satis- 
faction as  the  self-assertive  instinct  needs.  The 
welfare  of  the  country  requires  the  utmost  develop- 
ment of  this  form  of  competition.  If  the  rivalry 
concentrates  upon  the  product  brought  forth,  it 
stimulates  progress  while  at  the  same  time  giving 
an  opportunity  for  the  mild  contest  which  human 
nature  craves.  If,  however,  too  much  attention  is 
placed  upon  the  element  of  success  and  too  little 
upon  the  craftsmanship  which  brings  forth  the 
success,  even  this  form  of  contest  can  become 
socially  separating  and  form  a  community  division 
most  unfortunate  in  social  results. 

It  is  necessary  that  the  value  and  also  the 
danger  of  prize  contests  for  boys  and  girls  be  kept 
in  mind  by  the  promoter  of  such  enterprises.  It 
is  of  the  greatest  importance  that  the  country  boys 
and  girls  be  introduced  to  wholesome  rivalry  and 
learn  the  opportunity  the  country  provides  for 
distinction  and  competition.  It  is  only  when 
such  contests  develop  an  interest  merely  in  the 


78  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

success  itself— in  the  prize  or  prestige  of  the  prize 
winner — that  encouragement  is  given  to  influences 
that  injure  rural  community  development.  The 
club  leader  may  be  so  anxious  for  immediate  and 
spectacular  success  that  he  may  exploit  the  self- 
assertion  of  boys  and  girls  for  his  own  selfish 
purposes  and  develop  a  spirit  of  rivalry  which 
passes  into  bitter  hostility.  In  this  way  a  move- 
ment which  is  supposed  to  unite  the  people  of  the 
country  community  and  develop  their  social 
resources  entirely  defeats  its  purpose  and  some- 
times separates  family  against  family  in  such  a 
way  as  to  make  constructive  social  work  in  that 
community  almost  impossible.  It  is  equally  true 
that  when  the  boy  or  girl  who  wins  the  prize  in 
the  agricultural  contest  is  given  an  unreasonable 
amount  of  publicity  and  greatly  flattered,  he  may 
become  so  captivated  by  the  pleasures  of  social 
distinction  that  soon  he  will  find  the  country 
environment  intolerable  because  such  a  tremendous 
degree  of  self-assertion  has  been  evoked.  By  the 
contest  he  has  been  educated  in  competitive  effort 
for  its  own  sake  and  sooner  or  later  he  will  naturally 
drift  out  of  the  country  into  the  urban  environ- 
ment where  he  can  exercise  to  the  full  the  aggressive 
impulses  that  have  been  formed.  Safety  consists 
in  putting  the  emphasis  upon  the  activity  itself. 
The  prize  winner  must  be  led  to  see  the  meaning 
of  the  effort,  that  his  eyes  may  not  concentrate 


THE  INSTINCT  OF  SELF-ASSERTION  79 

upon  the  prize  or  the  victory  itself.  In  other 
words,  the  ambition  must  be  created  to  obtain  still 
greater  mastery  over  the  processes  involved. 
When  this  is  done  we  are  sure  of  a  persistent 
interest  in  the  enterprise  and  the  danger  of  self- 
pride  is  necessarily  eliminated. 

One  of  the  most  fortunate  expressions  of  the 
self-assertive  instinct  in  the  country  is  the  friendly 
rivalry  among  adults  along  agricultural  lines. 
Poultry  enthusiasts  attempt  to  bring  forth  the 
prize  bird  of  the  community;  the  cattle  raiser 
becomes  a  partisan  with  reference  to  a  breed  of 
cattle  and  exhibits  his  pure-blooded  stock.  Hardly 
any  country  place  is  so  destitute  that  it  does  not 
have  at  least  two  or  three  who  are  particularly 
interested  in  some  sort  of  agricultural  competition 
and  whose  hens,  cattle,  horses,  sheep,  or  swine 
represent  serious  effort  to  maintain  a  reputation. 
This  competition  is  important  not  merely  because 
it  produces  a  fine  agricultural  product,  important 
though  that  is,  but  because  it  also  affords  whole- 
some expression  to  self-assertion.  Such  a  fortu- 
nate will  to  power  needs  every  possible  encourage- 
ment. The  father  who  early  introduces  his  son 
to  some  such  form  of  competition  does  all  that 
can  be  done  to  give  the  youth  a  taste  of  one  of  the 
most  satisfying  pleasures  of  country  life. 

The  self-assertive  instinct  is  of  greatest  im- 
portance in  rural  organization.  This  especially 


80  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

appears  with  reference  to  the  problem  of  leader- 
ship. The  prosperity  of  rural  society  depends  upon 
the  character  of  its  leaders  and  especially  its  local 
leaders.  The  leader  is  primarily  made  by  his  self- 
assertive  cravings.  This  is  particularly  clear  in 
the  case  of  the  local  leader.  It  is  his  desire  to 
find  a  satisfactory  outlet  for  his  natural  equipment 
which  makes  him  a  marked  man  in  the  community. 
In  character  he  does  not  differ  in  any  respect  from 
the  urban  leader.  His  environment,  however,  makes 
it  necessary  that  his  instinct  express  itself  differ- 
ently. We  sometimes  forget  how  self-assertive  men 
may  be  hi  the  rural  environment  without  having 
much  opportunity  for  self-expression.  This  was 
thoughtfully  expressed  by  Thomas  Gray  in  his 
elegy,  "The  Country  Churchyard": 

Some  village  Hampden,  that  with  dauntless  breast 
The  little  tyrant  of  his  fields  withstood, 
Some  mute  inglorious  Milton  here  may  rest, 
Some  Cromwell,  guiltless  of  his  country's  blood. 

Any  effort  at  rural  organization  is  much  con- 
cerned with  the  character  of  local  leaders.  Such 
persons  already  occupy  the  field  and  wield  con- 
siderable power.  Frequently  they  are  grouped  in 
two  or  more  hostile  divisions,  making  it  very  diffi- 
cult for  any  organization  to  come  into  the  com- 
munity and  build  up  a  common  program.  Men 
who  hold  local  office  or  who  use  their  puppets  whom 
they  have  placed  nominally  in  the  positions  whose 


THE  INSTINCT  OF  SELF-ASSERTION  81 

power  they  actually  control  are  in  small  form  the 
same  type  as  the  city  bosses.  Whether  they  are 
self-seeking  in  the  sense  of  the  man  of  the  street 
or  whether  they  are  community-spirited,  the  motive 
in  either  case  is  generally  the  satisfaction  of  self- 
assertion,  even  though  their  deep-seated  cravings 
may  be  altogether  unconscious. 

While  rural  organization  must  give  heed  to  the 
local  leaders  already  in  power,  the  future  well- 
being  of  the  country  place  usually  rests  upon  the 
ability  of  the  incoming  organizations  to  develop 
the  potential  leaders.  Often  the  persons  best 
fitted  to  be  useful  have  not  been  brought  out. 
Perhaps  they  have  been  unwilling  to  enter  the 
contest  for  power  because  of  the  unpleasant  condi- 
tions of  the  struggle  previously  prevalent  in  the 
community.  When,  however,  they  are  captivated 
by  sufficient  motive  they  reveal  unexpected  quali- 
fications for  leadership.  Their  self-assertive  in- 
stinct demanded  a  more  inviting  form  of  expression 
than  was  afforded,  for  example,  by  local  par- 
tisan politics. 

Any  organization  working  in  the  country  finds 
one  of  its  chief  problems  to  be  the  education  of 
local  leadership.  The  men  in  power  who  are 
eager  to  continue  their  authority  are  not  necessarily 
wholesome  leaders  from  a  community  viewpoint. 
They  may  have  all  the  qualifications  of  self- 
assertion  and  still  lack  the  vision  or  the  intelli- 


82  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

gence  or  the  social  sincerity  required.  Under  such 
circumstances  any  community  program  will  not 
be  permanently  established  unless  the  leadership 
already  in  the  community  is  given  a  new  point  of 
view  or  is  supplanted  by  the  type  the  occasion 
demands.  In  practice  the  organizer  finds  one  of 
his  most  delicate  and  significant  responsibilities  his 
relation  with  leaders  already  intrenched  in  the 
community,  and  in  his  ability,  when  socially  ne- 
cessary, to  get  rid  of  them  without  causing  a  com- 
munity rupture.  It  helps  anyone  who  faces  this 
problem  of  local  leadership  if  he  clearly  appreciates 
the  significance  of  the  self-assertive  instinct  as  it 
expresses  itself  in  the  behavior  of  the  leaders. 

The  rural  organization  that  serves  the  country 
best  is  that  which  most  nearly  satisfies  the  self- 
assertion  of  a  multitude  of  persons.  The  condi- 
tions of  rural  life  permit  a  more  democratic 
organization  of  the  various  societies  than  does 
urban  life.  The  rural  organization  that  makes  its 
membership  generally  feel  a  sense  of  self-expression 
performs  a  very  great  service.  One  of  the  causes 
of  discontent  among  rural  people  is  the  fact  that 
so  many  find  their  life  empty  as  far  as  adequate 
self-expression  is  concerned.  What  they  crave  is 
opportunity  to  do  something  worth  while.  At  bot- 
tom they  ask  for  privileges  of  self-assertion.  The 
rural  organization,  as  for  example  the  Grange, 
comes  into  their  life  bringing  them  the  opportunity 


THE  INSTINCT  OF  SELF-ASSERTION  83 

for  which  they  ask.  At  once  they  face  the  rural 
environment  with  a  changed  attitude  of  mind.  In 
the  labor  world  in  the  urban  organization  of  indus- 
try it  is  becoming  more  and  more  difficult  to  give 
any  adequate  sense  of  self-assertion.  Men  are 
being  forced  to  work  for  wages,  and  for  nothing 
more.  In  spite  of  high  wages  they  are  naturally 
increasingly  discontented.  A  great  human  craving 
is  being  crushed  by  the  complexity  of  modern 
industry.  This  situation  need  not  be  duplicated 
in  the  country.  Where  the  community  is  demo- 
cratically organized  and  rightly  led  every  indi- 
vidual may  find  some  means  by  which  to  express 
himself  so  as  to  have  a  sense  of  personal  impor- 
tance. He  is  not  merely  a  cog  in  a  machine.  He 
is  a  person,  and  what  he  does  has  some  consequence. 
While  he  earns  his  living  he  also  has  opportunity 
to  express  desires  that  give  him  a  consciousness  of 
living  a  life  worth  while. 

A  great  deal  of  the  clash  which  is  so  frequent  in 
modern  social  life  is  due  to  a  desire  of  members  of 
various  groups  for  self-expression.  They  find  it 
impossible  to  have  any  vivid  sense  of  individual 
self-assertion,  but  they  do  feel  the  power  of  the 
group  to  which  they  belong.  Of  course  their 
leaders  are  men  and  women  particularly  self- 
asserting.  There  have  been  and  there  still  are 
many  reasons  why  the  farmer  should  develop 
class  consciousness.  To  a  certain  degree  this  is 


84  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

inevitable  under  the  present  circumstances  of  eco- 
nomic organization.  It  is  undesirable,  however, 
for  the  farmer  to  allow  self-seeking,  self-assertive 
leaders  to  exploit  this  class  feeling  and  develop  it 
to  a  great  degree.  The  wrong  kind  of  leader  often 
attempts  to  build  his  power  upon  the  grievances 
of  the  farmer.  What  the  farmer  needs  is  not  to 
feel  his  injustices  more  deeply,  but  rather  to  find 
a  way  out  of  his  difficulties.  His  self-assertion  as 
expressed  in  the  economic  world  can  get  its  fullest 
satisfaction  by  a  constructive  program  that  will 
bring  to  the  rural  worker  a  more  reasonable  share 
in  the  comforts  and  opportunities  of  modern  life. 
In  expressions  of  class  hostility  and  discontent  self- 
assertion  melts  away  in  mere  feeling  and  leaves  to 
the  fanner  no  permanent  or  substantial  result. 
Co-operation  and  constructive  organization  will 
carry  him  farther  toward  prosperity  than  will 
agitation  and  class  consciousness. 

Rural  welfare  requires  that  the  farmer  obtain 
all  that  really  belongs  to  him.  He  must  be  organ- 
ized; he  must  be  industrially  powerful;  he  must  be 
self-assertive;  he  must  have  a  program.  It  is  for 
the  good  of  the  nation  that  he  sense  his  needs  and 
rights  and  that  he  back  up  his  demands  by  a  thor- 
oughly organized  self-assertion.  In  order,  however, 
that  his  program  may  be  sane,  it  is  necessary  that  he 
have  a  correct  understanding  of  all  the  conditions 
of  modern  life  that  concern  him,  and  that  he  also 


THE  INSTINCT  OF  SELF-ASSERTION  85 

have  the  most  extensive  contact  possible  with  people 
outside  his  own  environment.  In  other  words,  he 
can  best  win  his  social  rights  by  a  rational  social  pro- 
gram. In  so  far  as  he  becomes  the  victim  of  scheming 
leadership,  hungering  only  for  a  sense  of  power,  he 
must  fail  to  obtain  the  full  measure  of  his  present 
opportunity.  Self-assertion  may  lead  him  astray  if 
it  is  permitted  to  rob  him  of  his  good  sense  or  bring 
him  under  the  spell  of  the  exploiting  leadership 
which  has  become  so  great  a  menace  in  urban  life. 

REFERENCES  ON  THE  INSTINCT  OF 
SELF-ASSERTION 

Adler,  A.,  The  Neurotic  Constitution  (B.  Glueck,  transl.). 
New  York:  Moffat,  Yard  &  Co.,  1917. 

Bjerre,  P.,  The  History  and  Practice  af  Psychoanalysis 
(E.  N.  Barrow,  transl.),  chap.  iv.  Boston:  Badger,  1920. 

Blanchard,  P.,  The  Adolescent  Girl,  chap.  iii.  New  York: 
Moffat,  Yard  &  Co.,  1920. 

Edman,  I.,  Human  Traits  and  Their  Social  Significance, 
chap.  viii.  Boston:  Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  1920. 

MacCurdy,  J.  T.,  "A  Study  of  Human  Motives,"  Proceed- 
ings of  the  International  Conference  of  Women  Physi- 
cians, Vol.  IV.  New  York:  The  Woman's  Press,  1920. 

McDougall,  W.,  An  Introduction  to  Social  Psychology, 
chap.  vii.  Boston:  Luce  &  Co.,  1918. 

Tansley,  A.  G.,  The  New  Psychology  and  Its  Relation  to 
Life,  chap,  xviii.  London:  Allen  &  Unwin,  1920. 

Tead,  O.,  Instincts  in  Industry,  chaps,  vi,  vii.  Boston: 
Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  1918. 

White,  W.  A.,  Mechanisms  of  Character  Formation,  chaps, 
viii,  ix.  New  York:  Macmillan,  1916. 

— • — • — ,  The  Mental  Hygiene  of  Childhood,  chaps,  ii,  iii. 
Boston:  Little,  Brown  &  Co.,  1919. 


VI 

THE  PARENTAL  AND  THE  SEX 
INSTINCTS 

PARENTAL  INSTINCT 

One  of  the  major  instincts,  by  common  consent 
the  most  important  of  all  for  social  organization, 
is  the  parental  instinct.  In  animal  life,  especially 
in  its  maternal  form,  it  plays  an  increasing  role 
with  the  ascending  scale  of  nervous  structure  and 
complexity  of  conduct.  Its  biological,  and  social 
significance  was  clearly  established  by  Drummond 
in  his  Ascent  of  Man.  The  description  of  the 
parental  or  reproductive  instinct  and  its  allied 
emotion,  tenderness,  given  by  McDougall,  has 
become  a  psychological  classic.  He  writes: 

From  this  stage  onwards  protection  of  offspring  becomes 
increasingly  psychical  in  character,  involves  more  pro- 
found modification  of  the  parent's  behaviour  and  a  more 
prolonged  period  of  more  effective  guardianship.  The 
highest  stage  is  reached  by  those  species  in  which  each 
female  produces  at  a  birth  but  one  or  two  young  and  pro- 
tects them  so  efficiently  that  most  of  the  young  born  reach 
maturity;  the  maintenance  of  the  species  thus  becomes  in 
the  main  the  work  of  the  parental  instinct.  In  such 
species  the  protection  and  cherishing  of  the  young  is  the 
constant  and  all-absorbing  occupation  of  the  mother,  to 
which  she  devotes  all  her  energies,  and  in  the  course  of  which 

86 


PARENTAL  AND  SEX  INSTINCTS  87 

she  will  at  any  time  undergo  privation,  pain,  and  death. 
The  instinct  becomes  more  powerful  than  any  other,  and 
can  override  any  other,  even  fear  itself;  for  it  works  directly 
in  the  service  of  the  species,  while  the  other  instincts  work 
primarily  in  the  service  of  the  individual  life,  for  which 
Nature  cares  little.  All  this  has  been  well  set  out  by 
Sutherland,  with  a  wealth  of  illustrative  detail,  in  his  work 
on  The  Origin  and  Growth  of  the  Moral  Instinct. 

When  we  follow  up  the  evolution  of  this  instinct  to  the 
highest  animal  level,  we  find  among  the  apes  the  most 
remarkable  examples  of  its  operation.  Thus  in  one  species 
the  mother  is  said  to  carry  her  young  one  clasped  in  one 
arm  uninterruptedly  for  several  months,  never  letting  go  of 
it  in  all  her  wanderings.  This  instinct  is  no  less  strong 
in  many  human  mothers,  in  whom,  of  course,  it  becomes 
more  or  less  intellectualized  and  organized  as  the  most 
essential  constituent  of  the  sentiment  of  parental  love.  Like 
other  species,  the  human  species  is  dependent  upon  this 
instinct  for  its  continued  existence  and  welfare.  It  is 
true  that  reason,  working  in  the  service  of  the  egoistic 
impulses  and  sentiments,  often  circumvents  the  ends  of  this 
instinct  and  sets  up  habits  which  are  incompatible  with  it. 
When  that  occurs  on  a  large  scale  in  any  society,  that 
society  is  doomed  to  rapid  decay.  But  the  instinct  itself 
can  never  die  out,  save  with  the  disappearance  of  the 
human  species  itself;  it  is  kept  strong  and  effective  just 
because  those  families  and  races  and  nations  in  which  it 
weakens  become  rapidly  supplanted  by  those  in  which  it 
is  strong.1 

The  parental  instinct  has  always  a  large  im- 
portance in  the  rural  environment.  From  many 
viewpoints  the  country  seems  particularly  favor- 

1  McDougall,  An  Introduction  to  Social  Psychology,  pp.  69-71. 


88  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

able  to  the  best  social  expression  of  this  important 
instinct.  At  any  rate  the  rural  family  does  not 
suffer  some  of  the  handicaps  necessarily  placed 
upon  the  family  of  the  city.  On  the  whole,  there- 
fore, the  parental  instinct  is  especially  significant 
as  it  operates  in  the  social  life  of  country  people. 
Parents  are  likely  to  be  with  their  children  more 
in  the  country  than  is  possible  in  any  other  environ- 
ment. This  is  notably  true  during  the  children's 
long  summer  vacation.  The  working  conditions 
of  farm  life  tend  to  bring  into  association  the 
several  members  of  a  family;  for,  indeed,  much 
of  farming  in  America  still  remains  in  some  degree 
a  family  industry.  The  son  works  with  his  father 
in  the  fields;  the  daughter  helps  the  mother  with  the 
housework.  Even  the  recreation  of  the  children  is 
apt  to  be  more  often  under  the  eye  of  the  parents 
than  is  ever  possible  in  the  urban  environment. 

It  follows  that  the  rural  family  performs  a 
larger  function  along  educational  lines  than  would 
be  feasible  under  different  industrial  and  social  con- 
ditions. The  companionship  between  parents  and 
children  makes  it  easy  for  the  parents  to  impress 
their  standards  of  life  strongly  upon  their  children. 
Their  influence  meets  less  competition  than  does 
that  of  city  parents.  Although  this  greater  effect- 
iveness of  parental  relationship  works  both  ways, 
according  ^to^the  character  of  the  home,  so  that 
some  children  are  hampered  in  their  life-preparation 


PARENTAL  AND  SEX  INSTINCTS  89 

by  family  influences,  while  others  are  benefited, 
nevertheless  in  either  case  the  power  of  the  parental 
instinct  shows  itself. 

As  the  importance  of  family  atmosphere  in  its 
operations  upon  the  life  of  the  growing  child 
becomes  more  commonly  recognized  there  will 
surely  follow  greater  and  greater  effort  to  con- 
serve for  social  welfare  the  tremendous  opportuni- 
ties provided  by  the  home.  Country  conditions, 
however,  will  always  present  the  most  favorable 
environment  for  the  utilization  of  parental  oppor- 
tunity. From  the  country  has  been  coming  the 
influence  of  the  most  stable  home;  hi  the  future 
we  have  reason  to  expect  from  the  country  the 
most  effective  educational  contribution  that  family 
life  can  make. 

There  is  nothing  more  characteristic  of  the 
average  parent  than  a  desire  to  secure  for  his  chil- 
dren better  conditions  than  he  himself  enjoyed. 
This  desire  is  especially  the  modern  expression  of 
the  parental  instinct.  Even  animals  care  for  their 
young.  Modern  man  is  not  satisfied  with  mere 
protection;  he  desires  to  provide  new  and  more 
favorable  circumstances  of  life.  In  other  words, 
he  reacts  against  his  own  mistakes  and  limitations 
by  eagerly  striving  for  easier  conditions  for  his 
children.  Tead  tells  us1  that  one  of  the  causes  of 
industrial  unrest  is  the  desire  of  parents  to  improve 

1  Tead,  Instincts  in  Induslry,  p.  14. 


go  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

their  lot  so  as  to  insure  a  more  wholesome  life  for 
their  children.  While  country  people  express  it 
differently  from  factory  operatives,  for  example, 
yet  this  is  one  of  the  ever  present  and  profound 
motives  in  family  ambition. 

The  way  the  parents'  desires  for  their  children's 
advancement  show  themselves  depends  on  the 
general  attitude  of  the  parents  toward  country 
life,  and  the  community  conditions  that  the 
family  experiences.  Where  farm  life  seems  hard 
and  barren,  the  income  inadequate,  and  the  toil 
excessive,  parents  may  be  pardoned  for  wanting 
their  children  to  take  up  some  other  occupation 
than  farming.  That  this  is  the  wish  of  many 
parents  no  one  can  doubt  who  has  ever  investi- 
gated the  reasons  young  people  have  for  leaving 
the  country.  In  such  cases  the  mother  appears 
more  aggressive  in  impelling  the  children  toward 
the  town  or  city.  This  may  be  in  part  because  of 
a  more  intense  parental  instinct  in  the  mother 
and  at  times  because  she  feels  more  deeply  than 
does  the  father  the  unsatisfactory  conditions  on 
the  farm.  On  the  other  hand,  when  the  parents 
are  happily  situated  and  thoroughly  in  sympathy 
with  country  life  they  naturally  encourage  their 
children  to  remain  in  the  country  unless  they 
clearly  see  that  because  of  special  endowment  or 
peculiar  taste  a  child  cannot  wisely  keep  to  the 
rural  environment. 


PARENTAL  AND  SEX  INSTINCTS  91 

This  normal  wish  on  the  part  of  country  parents 
to  advance  their  children  lays  an  excellent  founda- 
tion for  community  progress.  The  parent-teacher 
association  is  well  adapted  to  utilize  parental 
ambition  in  ways  that  further  social  welfare.  It 
is  to  be  regretted  that  there  are  not  more  such 
organizations  in  rural  districts.  By  bringing 
together  teachers  and  parents  and  children,  family 
ambition  is  naturally  carried  over  into  social 
betterment.  Anyone  who  knows  at  first  hand  the 
work  of  a  good  parent-teacher  association  in  the 
country  appreciates  the  value  of  one  of  the  happiest 
and  most  useful  of  gatherings  for  rural  people. 
Where  the  organization  has  been  started  and  died 
out,  the  trouble  seldom  is  any  lack  of  parental 
interest,  but  rather  a  failure  to  bring  this  interest 
to  wholesome  expression.  The  lack  of  success  is 
most  often  due  to  ineffective  leadership. 

At  one  point  it  would  seem  as  if  the  parental 
instinct  were  ineffective.  Country  people  often 
seem  niggardly  with  reference  to  school  expendi- 
tures. They  obstruct  educational  progress  and 
work  against  improvement  of  teaching  force, 
equipment,  recreational  facilities.  They  argue 
that  what  was  good  enough  for  them  is  good 
enough  for  their  children.  But  all  the  facts  with 
reference  to  the  countryman's  attitude  toward 
taxation  do  not  stand  forth  upon  the  surface.  In 
the  country,  taxation  is  largely  direct  and  con- 


92  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

scious;  moreover,  the  family  income  is  not  uncom- 
monly such  as  to  make  economy  necessary,  and  it 
is  not  strange  that  the  farmer  starts  retrenchment 
in  community  expenditure.  There  is  also  honest 
doubt  frequently  about  the  so-called  improve- 
ments. This  feeling  of  suspicion  may  be  rooted  in 
previous  experiences,  for  everyone  who  attempts 
reforms  in  the  country  must  remember  that  others 
have  preceded  him,  and  that  country  folk  have 
suffered  considerably  from  unwise  experiments  and 
irresponsible  propaganda.  When  parents  are  sure 
that  their  increased  tax  actually  does  mean  appre- 
ciable advantage  to  their  own  children,  they  do 
not  normally  refuse  to  accept  their  share  of  the 
burden.  They  are  naturally  careful  in  regard  to 
public  expenditure,  as  city  people  would  be  if  they 
were  more  conscious  of  their  own  contribution  to 
the  public  tax. 

Rural  life  largely  centers  about  family  interest. 
A  great  deal  of  the  community  life  rests  upon  a 
family  structure  rather  than  the  association  of 
individuals  as  such.  Much  of  the  influence  of 
country  life  conserves  and  strengthens  family 
affection.  The  members  of  the  family  are  more 
closely  united,  since  they  escape  the  scattering 
tendency  necessarily  present  in  a  highly  gregarious 
society.  The  close  association  and  the  common 
motives  of  the  normal  rural  home  deepen  love  much 
as  struggle  with  poverty  does  for  many  of  the 


PARENTAL  AND  SEX  INSTINCTS  93 

poorer  families  of  the  cities.  It  is  this  drawing 
together  under  the  impulse  of  common  interest 
which  explains  the  possibility  of  several  families 
living  under  one  roof,  as  occasionally  happens  in 
the  country.  Sons  and  daughters  marry  and  the 
new  family  is  incorporated  in  the  parental  home. 
The  sense  of  common  personal  interests  is  strong 
enough  to  overcome  the  risk  of  close  association 
between  mother-in-law  and  daughter-in-law  and 
the  other  relationships  made  by  marriage. 

This  basic  sense  of  common  interest  could  not 
be  maintained  so  easily  were  it  not  that  farming 
is  still  an  industry  that  to  a  large  degree  has  a 
family  foundation.  If  the  working  members  of 
the  family  all  scattered  after  breakfast  to  different 
parts  of  the  locality  to  do  different  tasks  with  no 
common  understanding  of  the  various  forms  of 
occupation  represented,  as  do  urban  workers,  it 
would  be  impossible  for  so  many  composite  families 
as  are  found  at  present  in  the  country  to  exist  in  a 
reasonable  degree  of  content  and  happiness. 

It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  have  so  thoroughly 
organized  a  rural  family  without  suffering  from 
social  evils.  One  of  the  outstanding  misfortunes 
in  the  community  life  of  the  country  is  excessive 
family  competition.  The  ambition  of  parents, 
reinforced  by  the  self-assertive  and  pugnacious 
instincts,  leads  to  intense  rivalries  and  jealousies 
between  families.  This  unfortunate  relation  exists 


94  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

between  relatives  and  neighbors  and  especially 
among  families  that  compete  for  leadership  in 
the  community  enterprises. 

Family  competition  in  the  country  sometimes 
passes  over  into  family  feuds,  and  in  the  older 
rural  sections  these  divisions  pass  on  from  father 
to  son  in  a  most  surprising  manner.  Occasionally 
a  community  is  hopelessly  separated  by  the  implac- 
able rivalry  existing  between  families  that  once 
were  friendly,  but  that  for  many  years  have 
bitterly  fought  one  another.  The  quarrel  is  liable 
to  be  carried  into  the  church  or  the  school  or  some 
other  community  undertaking,  and  much  of  the 
energy  of  the  people  is  wasted  in  foolish  antago- 
nism. These  feuds  are  sometimes  fundamentally 
pathological.  They  originate  in  the  abnormality 
of  some  member  of  a  family,  who  has  become  so 
sensitive  or  so  jealous  or  so  quarrelsome  as  to 
demonstrate  his  departure  from  the  normal.  The 
real  situation,  however,  is  seldom  understood  by 
the  community,  and  the  pathological  individual, 
who  may  indeed  be  mildly  insane,  nevertheless 
rallies  his  friends  and  relatives  to  a  warfare  which 
continues  even  after  his  death. 

McDougall  assigns  the  emotion  of  tenderness  to 
the  reproductive  instinct.  In  large  measure  pity 
is  a  derivative  of  the  parental  instinct.  On  the 
whole,  pity  is  strongly  expressed  in  country  life, 
as  one  would  expect  from  the  strength  of  the 


PARENTAL  AND  SEX  INSTINCTS  95 

instinct  that  feeds  it.  Country  conditions  provide 
many  opportunities  for  the  development  of  pity, 
particularly  in  early  life,  at  the  time  when  the 
expression  of  this  emotion  is  most  infrequent.  In 
addition  to  the  care  of  the  child  the  adult  has 
numerous  chances  to  show  tenderness  toward 
animal  life,  and  in  rare  cases  the  feeling  is  carried 
over  in  relation  to  plants  and  trees.  The  attitude 
of  the  mother  animal  and  the  weakness  of  her 
offspring  impress  the  average  countryman  more 
often  than  he  is  likely  to  admit.  There  is  a 
stoical  philosophy  among  the  rural  people  of  Amer- 
ica, particularly  in  the  older  parts,  that  leads  the 
men  to  cover  up  their  inherent  tenderness  lest 
they  be  accused  of  sentimentalism.  The  close 
observer,  however,  discovers  easily  that  there  is 
in  the  country  a  sympathetic  attitude  toward  the 
young  and  helpless  which  is  directly  related  to  the 
strong  parental  instinct.  Of  course  it  is  with 
reference  to  children  that  this  is  most  clearly 
seen.  Where  life  is  not  economically  too  hard  nor 
toil  so  excessive  as  to  destroy  the  people's  vitality, 
parents  usually  make  much  of  their  children  and 
obtain  deep  satisfaction  from  their  affectionate 
relationships.  There  are  influences  in  the  country, 
especially  those  that  come  from  the  slaughtering  of 
domestic  animals,  that  tend  to  harden  and  give 
an  indifferent  attitude  toward  life;  but  as  a  rule, 
in  contact  with  children,  the  average  father  and 


g6  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

mother  express  to  the  full  the  highest  development 
of  the  human  parental  affection. 

In  the  rural  environment  pity  is  by  no  means 
confined  to  one's  own  children  or  even  to  one's 
own  household  or  relatives.  Neighborhood  spirit 
has  never  been  carried  to  a  finer  expression  along 
lines  of  human  sympathy  than  hi  the  American 
rural  community.  This  is  most  clearly  demon- 
strated with  reference  to  tragic  events.  The  com- 
ing of  death  or  accident  or  illness  into  the  home 
brings  forth  sympathy  and  practical  assistance. 
A  fire,  for  example,  shows  the  spontaneous  expres- 
sion of  community  sympathy.  It  is  more  than 
curiosity  and  craving  for  excitement  that  brings 
together  from  all  directions  men  and  women  in 
the  endeavor  to  put  out  the  fire.  If  they  fail,  and 
the  fire  completes  its  destruction,  there  follows 
frequently  very  tangible  evidence  of  genuine 
sympathy.  The  entire  community,  as  it  were, 
makes  contributions,  that  the  home  may  be 
rehabilitated.  Some  give  their  labor,  some  give 
material,  some  give  money,  and  few  indeed  there 
are  that  give  nothing.  Although  sympathy  is 
perhaps  more  composite  than  tenderness,  without 
question  they  both  draw  nutriment  from  the 
reproductive  instinct.  Sympathy  and  tenderness 
have  been  freely  expressed  in  the  country  in  cases 
of  illness.  This  is  not  so  true  at  present  as  it  has 
been.  Some  keen  observers  of  country  life  con- 


PARENTAL  AND  SEX  INSTINCTS  97 

ditions  regret  exceedingly  the  passing  of  neighbor- 
hood nursing.  In  so  far  as  the  change  has  come 
about,  it  is  due  to  several  influences.  In  the  first 
place,  even  in  the  country  the  service  of  the  pro- 
fessional nurse  is  increasing.  In  the  second  place, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  fear  of  contagion 
has  greatly  decreased  neighborhood  nursing;  and 
since  there  has  been  an  inadequate  knowledge  of 
bacteria,  there  have  grown  up  ill-founded  and 
superstitious  ideas  regarding  contact  with  the  sick. 
In  part,  also,  urban  influences  have  been  at  work, 
and  it  must  be  admitted  that  to  some  extent  the 
change  represents  a  melting  away  of  neighborhood 
spirit.  There  still  remains,  however,  a  much 
greater  neighborhood  concern  for  those  sick  or 
bereaved  than  usually  occurs  in  the  city,  even  in 
the  same  apartment  house,  or  in  the  suburban 
community,  even  on  the  same  street. 

SEX  INSTINCT 

Although  the  sex  instinct  is  fundamentally 
related  to  the  parental  instinct,  it  of  course  must 
be  distinguished  and  given  its  separate  analysis. 
It  is  without  question  one  of  the  most  powerful 
and  most  necessary  of  all  human  urges.  As  it 
functions  in  human  life  it  is  exceedingly  complex, 
and  in  its  psychic  expressions  not  always  easily 
recognized.  In  other  words,  in  a  normal  human 
being,  sex  is  something',  more  than  physical.  The 


98  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

Freudian  psychology  attempts  to  deal  with  the 
psychic  by-products  as  they  are  expressed  in 
modern  social  life.  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose 
that  the  sex  instinct  is  weaker  or  stronger  in  the 
rural  environment  than  in  any  other,  nor  is  it 
more  simple  or  more  complex.  It  is  unreasonable 
to  suppose  that  the  rural  environment  funda- 
mentally influences  the  sex  instinct  to  increase  it 
or  to  decrease  it,  or  to  give  it  any  rigid  environ- 
mental expression;  but  without  doubt  the  effect 
of  the  environment  can  be  seen  in  social  conditions 
that  are  largely  originated  by  sex  interests. 

The  sex  instinct  in  the  country  tends  to  express 
itself  in  its  inherent  simplicity.  It  may  be  con- 
scious or  unconscious  in  the  life  of  the  individual, 
but  in  either  case  it  is  more  largely  unadulterated 
sex  than  can  be  true  in  the  gregarious  environment 
of  the  city.  The  mutual  attractiveness  of  the 
adolescent  boy  and  girl  in  the  country,  for  example, 
is  undisguised  and  is  accepted  by  everyone  as 
according  to  the  natural  order.  The  emotion  of 
love,  largely  derived  from  this  powerful  instinct, 
is  frankly  taken  for  granted  and  not  covered  up 
by  the  subterfuges  which  are  maintained  to  some 
extent  in  urban  society. 

It  is  hardly  possible  for  rural  young  people 
to  escape  the  knowledge  of  sex.  It  stands  out 
prominently  in  the  environment,  especially  with 
reference  to  the  domestic  animals.  The  boy  par- 


PARENTAL  AND  SEX  INSTINCTS  99 

ticularly  becomes  acquainted  with  sex  in  one 
form  or  another  very  early,  and  the  country  girl 
has  greater  knowledge  of  it  as  a  factor  of  life,  class 
for  class,  than  does  her  city  sister.  Unfortunately 
a  considerable  amount  of  rural  conversation  centers 
about  sex  in  the  average  community.  This  by  no 
means  indicates  that  rural  people  are  more  sexual 
or  more  interested  in  sex  than  are  people  in  the 
town  or  city,  but  rather  that  they  handle  the 
matter  more  directly  and  more  frankly. 

The  freedom  in  the  country  and  the  need  of 
the  greatest  possible  use  of  opportunities  for 
association  have  led  to  a  precocious  courtship, 
which  on  the  whole  seems  detrimental  to  the  best 
interests  of  the  growing  boy  and  girl.  It  would  be 
better  if  the  association  of  the  sexes  in  the  adoles- 
cent years  could  be  more  a  comradeship  and  less 
a  premature  development  of  mature  attractive- 
ness. It  stands  as  the  opposite  extreme  from  the 
unwholesome  separation  along  lines  of  normal 
association,  which  often  takes  place  between  the 
boy  and  girl  in  the  suburban  and  city  society. 

It  is  surprising  to  see  how  greatly  rural  com- 
munities differ  with  reference  to  unwholesome 
expressions  of  sex  interests.  Apparently  two  com- 
munities near  together,  or  even  two  neighborhoods 
of  the  same  farming  section,  may  be  radically 
different.  One  will  be  altogether  wholesome  and 
free  from  any  immorality;  the  other  will  main- 


loo  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

tain  low  standards  and  in  proportion  to  the 
population  will  have  a  large  degree  of  vice.  It 
must  be  realized  that  the  freedom  and  isolation  of 
the  country  make  vice  possible  where  the  traditions 
and  standards  of  the  community  are  such  as  to 
encourage  it.  When  one  considers  the  freedom 
that  the  average  American  country  community 
permits  the  young  man  and  woman,  the  almost 
entire  absence  of  chaperonage,  the  "two  is  com- 
pany, three's  a  crowd"  code,  buggy  and  auto- 
mobile two-by-two  driving  parties,  it  speaks  well 
for  the  general  wholesomeness  of  country  life  that 
we  so  infrequently  have  sex  tragedies.  Investiga- 
tions such  as  have  been  made  do  not  demonstrate 
any  exceptional  amount  of  illegitimacy;  and  yet 
there  is  little  artificial  barrier  to  sex  interest.  The 
general  tone  of  the  community  is  the  real  protective 
influence  which  forbids  any  considerable  sex  prob- 
lem. Curtis,  in  his  Play  and  Recreation  for  the 
Open  Country,  gives  a  just  description  of  the 
average  country  morality  in  the  following  words: 

There  seems  to  be  a  general  feeling  that  moral  condi- 
tions are  bad  in  the  city  and  good  in  the  country,  but  I 
question  if  this  is  so.  The  city  has  its  great  criminals  and 
philanthropists;  it  furnishes  the  rich  soil  in  which  all  things 
grow  rank.  The  country  does  not  produce  the  great  saints 
or  the  great  sinners.  It  has  no  prostitution,  but  there  are 
probably  quite  as  many  loose  young  people  in  the  country 
as  in  the  city.  The  hired  man  who  goes  to  town  to  "have 
a  good  time"  is  apt  to  get  drunk  and  visit  the  worst  type 
of  houses.  Immoral  tales  and  obscene  language  are  a  large 


PARENTAL  AND  SEX  INSTINCTS  lot 

part  of  the  conversation  of  hired  men  and  country  boys. 
The  sex  instinct  is  very  insistent  in  the  teens,  and  there  is 
gathered  about  it  the'  romance  of  love.  Country  youth 
are  not  usually  chaperoned,  and  there  are  abundant  oppor- 
tunities for  seclusion.  Add  to  this  the  fact  that  there  often 
is  little  else  to  think  of,  and  you  have  a  condition  out  of 
which  immorality  will  always  grow.  There  is  scarcely  a 
social  occasion  which  is  not  beset  with  temptations,  the 
dances  are  generally  held  in  the  woods  or  at  hotels,  and 
walks  and  drives  are  solitary.  The  country  must  give  a 
proper  organization  to  its  social  life  if  it  is  only  for  the  sake 
of  the  boys  and  girls.1 

The  feeble-minded  girl  stands  out  as  an  excep- 
tion. Her  inherent  weakness  of  control  makes  it 
easy  for  the  more  selfish  men  to  exploit  her.  She 
becomes  the  mother  of  illegitimate  children,  and 
constitutes  in  the  country,  as  she  does  in  the  city, 
a  special  sex  problem  which  at  present  cannot  be 
solved  unless  she  is  carefully  protected  from  those 
who  would  prey  upon  her  mental  deficiency. 
Individual  feeble-minded  girls  in  the  country  have 
been  known  to  give  birth  to  as  many  as  seven  or 
eight  illegitimate  children,  each  having  a  differ- 
ent father.  A  few  such  girls  necessarily  lift  the 
record  of  illegitimacy  out  of  all  proportion,  and 
give  the  community  as  a  whole  a  reputation  it 
does  not  at  all  deserve. 

In  unprogressive  communities  of  low  standard 
there  are  certain  influences  that  come  forth  from 
the  rural  environment  to  affect  unfortunately  sex 

1  Curtis,  p.  245.  .' 


IO2  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

relations.  One  of  these  influences  is  the  atmos- 
phere of  repression.  Where  the  church  preaches 
asceticism  and  frowns  upon  wholesome  pleasures 
and  recreations,  giving  Christianity  a  morbid 
interpretation  which  must  alienate  wholesome 
young  men  and  women,  the  association  of  the  youth 
of  the  community  loses  much  of  its  elevating 
character.  There  is  frequently  a  driving  down  of 
youthful  idealism  to  lower  levels  created  by  the 
meaner  types.  The  entire  community  life  seems 
thrown  out  of  gear,  and,  since  nothing  functions 
properly,  it  is  not  at  all  strange  that  the  sex 
instinct  bursts  forth  to  the  permanent  injury  of 
the  less  disciplined  individuals.  Social  repression 
leads  directly  to  sex  self-consciousness  and  vicious 
associations.  The  remedy  is  as  clear  as  the  cause. 
Monotony  also  has  an  unwholesome  influence 
upon  the  sex  instinct.  Where  little  happens  and 
young  life  finds  no  appealing  recreations,  it  is 
natural  that  there  should  be  emphasis  upon  sex. 
Among  the  young,  the  instinct  of  sex  always  has 
momentum  enough  to  fill  any  social  void,  and 
where  the  life  sickens  of  dreary  monotony  it  must 
not  be  thought  strange  that  relief  is  often  dis- 
covered in  sex  interests  that  invariably  express 
themselves  in  vice.  Here  again  the  remedy  stands 
forth  on  the  surface.  It  is  by  filling  up  the  life 
of  the  young  with  wholesome  opportunities  and 
influences  that  the^ex  instinct  is  forced  to  take 


PARENTAL  AND  SEX  INSTINCTS  103 

its  proper  place  and  show  itself  in  the  sublimated 
mutual  respect  of  wholesome  affection  between 
men  and  women. 

There  is  one  peculiarity  that  occasionally  is  to 
be  found  in  rural  communities.  Although  the 
general  standard  of  morality  is  high,  at  one  point 
there  is  a  strange  exception.  This  consists  of  a 
number  of  homes  in  which  the  man  and  woman 
live  together  unmarried.  It  is  difficult  to  under- 
stand why  year  after  year  two  individuals  should 
live  together,  to  all  outward  appearances  husband 
and  wife,  and  yet  remain  unmarried.  A  recent 
study  of  such  homes  in  a  small  rural  community 
revealed  a  most  unreasonable  proportion  of  men 
living  with  their  housekeepers  for  many  years,  the 
two  regarded,  so  far  as  community  opinion  was 
concerned,  as  husband  and  wife.  The  situation 
is  accepted  by  the  community  as  a  matter  of  course, 
and  attracts  little  attention.  It  is  only  the  out- 
sider who  comes  into  the  place  who  marvels  at  the 
inconsistency  of  a  code  of  morals  particularly 
strict  with  reference  to  most  sex  matters  and 
extremely  lenient  to  one  type  of  variation.  Reli- 
gious revivals  in  the  country  have  been  known  to 
bring  about  the  wholesale  marrying  of  couples  who 
for  years  have  seemed  to  live  together  the  most 
intimate  home  life. 

The  rural  community  has  not  yet  reached  its 
greatest  efficiency  in  the  social  utilization  of  the 


IO4  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

normal  attraction  of  the  sexes.  It  is  impossible 
to  control  the  sex  instinct  satisfactorily  by  direct 
effort.  This  particular  instinct  serves  society  best 
when  it  is  sublimated  in  young  life,  and  its  energy 
drawn  forth  into  various  channels  that  lead  toward 
community  wholesomeness.  An  active,  progres- 
sive, and  sympathetic  church  can  do  much  in  the 
country  to  give  young  people  wholesome  contacts 
and  satisfying  recreation,  thus  keeping  sex  as  a 
physical  element  in  the  background.  The  efficient 
modern  school  with  a  reasonable  equipment  and 
well-trained,  socially  minded  teachers,  who  are 
mature  and  experienced  and  yet  not  hostile  to 
youth,  can  do  a  great  deal  to  give  young  people 
proper  attitudes  toward  life,  and  the  chivalry  and 
intellectual  interests  which  naturally  provide  social 
discipline  and  self-control.  The  community  itself, 
in  the  last  analysis,  is  the  determining  factor  in 
evolving  the  behavior  of  its  young  people.  If 
decency  and  high  standards  are  generally  main- 
tained, the  sex  problem  is  reduced  to  a  minimum. 
All  things  considered,  rural  morality  maintains 
itself  at  high  levels.  As  Warren  Wilson  points  out 
in  a  very  fair  estimate  of  present  conditions,  there 
has  been  decided  improvement  in  rural  ethics  so 
far  as  they  have  to  do  with  matters  of  sex.  It  is 
not  commonly  known  how  great  in  some  localities 
this  improvement  has  been.  The  statement  of 
Dr.  Wilson  is  as  follows: 


PARENTAL  AND  SEX  INSTINCTS  105 

The  investigations  of  the  Country  Life  Commission 
brought  general  testimony  to  the  high  standards  of  personal 
life  which  prevail  in  the  country.  In  such  a  representative 
state  as  Pennsylvania  the  standard  of  conduct  between  the 
sexes  was  found  to  be  good.  The  testimony  of  physicians, 
among  the  best  of  rural  observers,  was  nearly  unanimous, 
in  Pennsylvania,  to  the  good  moral  conditions  prevailing  in 
the  intercourse  of  men  and  women  in  the  country.  This 
indicates  that  the  farmer  economy  had  superseded  the 
economy  of  the  pioneer. 

The  moral  problem  of  the  pioneer  period  consisted  of  a 
struggle  for  honesty  in  business  contracts,  and  purity  in 
the  relation  of  men  and  women.  The  story  of  every  church 
in  New  England  and  Pennsylvania,  until  about  1835  at 
which  Professor  Ross  dates  the  beginning  of  the  farmer 
period,  shows  the  bitter  struggle  between  the  standard 
accepted  by  the  church  and  that  of  the  individuals  who 
failed  to  conform.  The  standard  was  inherited  from  the 
older  communities  of  Europe.  The  conduct  of  individuals 
grew  out  of  the  pioneer  economy  in  which  they  were  living. 
Church  records  in  New  England  and  New  York  state  are 
red  with  the  story  of  broken  contracts,  debt  and  adultery. 
The  writer  has  carefully  studied  the  records  of  Oblong 
Meeting  of  the  Society  of  Friends  in  Dutchess  County, 
New  York,  and  from  a  close  knowledge  of  the  community 
through  almost  twenty  years  of  residence  in  it,  it  is  his 
belief  that  there  were  more  cases  of  adultery  considered 
by  Oblong  Meeting  in  every  average  year  of  the  eighteenth 
century  than  were  known  to  the  whole  community  in  any 
ten  years  at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The 
farmer  economy  in  which  the  group  life  of  the  household 
prevailed  over  the  individual  life  had  by  the  nineteenth 
century  superseded  the  pioneer  period,  in  which  individual 
action  and  independent  personal  initiative  were  the  pre- 
vailing mode.1 

'Wilson,  Evolution  of  the  Country  Community,  pp.  171,  172. 


io6  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

REFERENCES  ON  THE  PARENTAL  AND  THE 
SEX  INSTINCTS 

Blanchard,  P.,  The  Adolescent  Girl,  chap.  ii.    New  York: 

Moffat,  Yard  &  Co.,  1920. 
Breckinridge,  S.  P.,  and  Abbott,  E.,  The  Delinquent  Child 

and  the  Home,  chaps,  vi,  vii.    New  York:    Charities 

Publication  Co.,  1912. 
Brown,  H.  W.,  "The  Deforming  Influences  of  the  Home," 

Journal  of  Abnormal  Psychology,  April,  1917. 
Ellis,  H., "  Sex  in  Relation  to  Society,"  Studies  in  the  Psychol- 
ogy of  Sex,  Vol.  VI.    Philadelphia:  F.  A.  Davis,  1910. 
Freud,  S.,  A  General  Introduction  to  Psychoanalysis  (G.  S. 

Hall,  transl.).    New  York:  Boni  &  Liveright,  1920. 
•,  Three  Contributions  to  the  Sexual  Theory  (A.  A.  Brill, 

transl.).    New  York:    The  Journal  of  Nervous  and 

Mental  Disease  Publishing  Co.,  1910. 
Groves,  E.  R.,  Moral  Sanitation,  chap.  vi.    New  York: 

Association  Press,  1916. 
— • •,  Rural  Problems  of  Today,  chaps,  i,  ii.    New  York: 

Association  Press,  1918. 
Hall,  G.  S.,  "Sex  Vicariates  and  Sublimations,"  Proceedings 

of  the  International  Conference  of  Women  Physicians, 

Vol.  V.    New  York:  The  Woman's  Press,  1920. 
Hollingworth,  H.  L.,  and  Pfoffenberger,  A.  T.,  Applied 

Psychology,  chap.  v.    New  York:  Appleton,  1917. 
Israel,  H.  (ed.),  The  Home  of  the  Countryside.    New  York: 

Association  Press,  1917. 
Jung,  C.  G.,  Analytical  Psychology  (C.  E.  Long,  transl.). 

pp.  132-55.    New  York:  Moffat,  Yard  &  Co.,  1916. 
Knight,  M.  M.,  Peters,  I.  L.,  and  Blanchard,  P.     Taboo 

and  Genetics,  pp.  247-60.    New  York:  Moffat,  Yard  & 

Co.,  1920. 
Lay,  W.,  The  Child's  Unconscious  Mind,  chap.  vi.    New 

York:  Dodd,  Mead  &  Co.,  1919. 


PARENTAL  AND  SEX  INSTINCTS  107 

McDougall,    W.,   An   Introduction   to   Social   Psychology, 

chap.  x.    Boston:  Luce  &  Co.,  1918. 
Moll,  A.,  The  Sexual  Life  of  the  Child  (E.  Paul,  transl.). 

New  York:  Macmillan,  1912. 
Tansley,  A.  G.,  The  New  Psychology  and  Its  Relation  to 

Life,  chaps,  xxi,  xxii.    London:  Allen  &  Unwin,  1920. 
Tead,  O.,  Instincts  in  Industry,  chaps,   ii,   iii.     Boston: 

Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  1918. 
Vogt,  P.  L.,  An  Introduction  to  Rural  Sociology,  chap.  xi. 

New  York:  Applet  on,  1917. 
White,  W.  A.,  "Extending  the  Field  of  Conscious  Control." 

Proceedings  of  the  International  Congress  of  Women 

Physicians,  Vol.  V.    New  York:  The  Woman's  Press, 

1920. 
— • ,   Mechanisms   of  Character  Formation,   chap.   vii. 

New  York:  Macmillan,  1916. 
,    The   Mental   Hygiene    of   Childhood,    chap.    viii. 

Boston:  Little,  Brown  &  Co.,  1919. 


VII 
FEAR 

Modern  psychology  makes  much  of  fear.  By 
some  writers  it  is  classed  among  the  instincts,  by 
others  among  the  emotions.  Watson  defines  it  as 
one  of  the  three  emotional  reactions  belonging  to 
the  original  and  fundamental  nature  of  man,  the 
other  two  being  rage  and  love.1  This  definition 
does  justice  to  both  the  spontaneous  origin  of  fear 
and  its  emotional  quality.  It  has  long  been  recog- 
nized that  the  emotion  of  fear  is  one  of  the  most 
powerful  impulses  that  influence  conduct.  James, 
many  years  ago,  pointed  out  that  fear  exercises  an 
unwholesome  sway  over  human  behavior: 

In  fact,  the  teleology  of  fear,  beyond  a  certain  point, 
is  more  than  dubious.  A  certain  amount  of  timidity  obvi- 
ously adapts  us  to  the  world  we  live  in,  but  the  fear- 
paroxysm  is  surely  altogether  harmful  to  him  who  is  its 
prey.2 

Again  he  writes: 

Fear  has  bodily  expressions  of  an  extremely  energetic 
kind,  and  stands,  beside  lust  and  anger,  as  one  of  the  three 
most  exciting  emotions  of  which  our  nature  is  susceptible. 
The  progress  from  brute  to  man  is  characterized  by  nothing 

1  Watson,  Psychology  from  the  Standpoint  of  a  Behaviorist, 
p.  199. 

2  W.  James,  Psychology,  Brief  Course,  p.  411. 

108 


FEAR  109 

so  much  as  by  the  decrease  in  frequency  of  proper  occasions 
for  fear.  In  civilized  life,  in  particular,  it  has  at  last 
become  possible  for  large  numbers  of  people  to  pass  from  the 
cradle  to  the  grave  without  ever  having  had  a  pang  of 
genuine  fear.  Many  of  us  need  an  attack  of  mental  disease 
to  teach  us  the  meaning  of  the  word.1 

It  is  only  of  late,  however,  that  the  full  sig- 
nificance of  this  emotion  as  it  operates  in  man's 
social  life  has  been  disclosed  by  science.  This  is 
because  the  psychic  manifestations  of  the  emotion 
were  not  clearly  understood.  The  emotion  shows 
itself  in  such  a  variety  of  ways  that  it  frequently 
escapes  responsibility  for  its  influence  upon  con- 
duct. Even  in  the  animals  fear  has  many  charac- 
teristic expressions.  In  man's  life  it  is  immensely 
more  complicated. 

The  influence  of  fear  in  the  primitive  life  of 
man  has  long  been  realized.  It  has  had  a  great 
deal  to  do  with  the  development  of  human  society. 
How  large  a  part  of  savage  life  is  influenced  by 
fear  is  shown  by  the  ethnological  studies  of  inves- 
tigators, who,  by  study  and  association  with  the 
natives,  have  become  familiar  with  the  social  life 
of  a  particular  tribe  or  people.  In  early  society 
fear  had  a  constructive  value,  for  it  was  necessary 
as  a  method  of  social  control.  It  made  for  peace 
and  order  and  stability  of  organization.  The  will 
of  the  tribe  or  village  was  adopted  by  the  indi- 

1  Ibid.,  p.  408. 


no  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

vidual  in  part  because  of  the  enormous  risk  he 
feared  if  he  ran  contrary  to  the  desires  of  his  associ- 
ates. The  following  description  of  the  social  con- 
trol of  the  American  Indian  is  a  vivid  illustration 
of  the  significance  of  the  fear  element: 

Certain  qualifications  will  be  made  presently;  but 
in  general  the  absence  of  central  authority  is  one  of  the 
most  impressive  features  of  North  American  society.  It 
might  be  imagined  that  a  chaotic  condition  was  inevitable 
under  these  circumstances.  But  that  would  be  leaving 
out  of  account  the  tremendous,  not  to  say  terrific,  force  of 
established  custom  and  public  opinion.  To  meet  with 
universal  reprobation  on  the  part  of  one's  neighbors;  to 
have  derisive  songs  sung  in  mockery  of  one's  transgressions; 
to  be  publicly  twitted  with  disgraceful  conduct  by  joking- 
relatives — these  were  eventualities  to  which  no  Indian 
lightly  exposed  himself.  They  made  it  possible  to  dispense 
largely  with  a  powerful  executive  and  with  penal  institu- 
tions; while  the  customary  law  sufficed,  rendering  new 
legislation  unnecessary.1 

In  animal  life  everybody  recognizes  the  large 
place  fear  occupies.  Of  late  science  has  been  mak- 
ing clear  the  fact  that  modern  man  is  more  suscep- 
tible to  fear  than  has  been  suspected.  Fears 
excessive  in  view  of  the  actual  circumstances  as 
judged  by  the  unprejudiced  observer  are  classed  as 
morbid.  The  amount  of  such  morbidity  in  modern 
life  is  surprising  to  those  unfamiliar  with  the  field  of 
abnormal  psychology.  In  addition  to  such  obses- 

1  R.  H.  Lowie,  Primitive  Society,  p.  385. 


FEAR  I i I 

sions,  fear  operates  much  more  commonly  in  psychic 
by-products,  such  as  worry  or  persistent  anxiety. 
In  childhood  we  find  ideas  of  physical  danger  pre- 
dominating, and  few  children  escape  intense  suffer- 
ing from  one  kind  of  fear  or  another.  Although 
under  the  necessary  stimulation  physical  fear 
expresses  itself  in  every  normal  adult,  it  is  pri- 
marily in  the  psychic  realm  that  fear  in  modern  life 
operates  after  maturity.  The  emotion  shows  itself, 
of  course,  in  every  environment.  Its  influence 
upon  rural  life,  however,  is  considerable,  and  any 
attempt  to  trace  its  effect  throws  light  upon  the 
social  mind  of  the  country. 

Recent  psychology  has  placed  great  stress  upon 
the  importance  of  protecting  the  child  from  experi- 
ences of  fear.  A  large  number  of  the  nervous 
difficulties  of  adult  life  are  found  to  be  connected 
with  early  childhood  fear  experiences.  There  are 
innumerable  opportunities  for  such  childhood 
injuries  in  the  rural  environment.  The  contact 
with  animal  life  makes  possible  one  of  the  most 
natural  forms  of  fear  reaction.  Primitive  man  was 
protected  largely  from  dangerous  wild  animals  by 
his  quick  instinctive  fear  attitudes,  and  the  little 
child  easily  becomes  a  victim  to  the  fright  that 
reacts  as  if  it  were  concerned  with  the  same  sort  of 
experience.  The  nature  of  the  rural  environment 
provides  opportunity  for  the  child  in  his  first 
association  with  domestic  animals  to  feel  fright. 


112  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

In  every  community  there  are  adults,  who,  not 
understanding  the  serious  injury  that  a  child  may 
obtain  from  being  frightened,  enjoy  seeing  the 
child  made  afraid.  Anyone  who  has  lived  his 
early  life  in  a  country  place  has  come  in  contact 
with  persons  who  use  every  opportunity  to  instil 
fear  in  children.  For  example,  the  farmer  has  to 
accept  often  such  farm  help  as  he  can  get,  and  as 
a  consequence  many  of  the  farm  laborers  are 
unwholesome  in  their  relations  with  children. 
The  effect  of  such  persons  in  instructing  youth  in 
vice  is  rather  generally  recognized;  their  influence 
in  the  instilling  of  fear  is  equally  injurious. 

Another  source  of  fear  injuries  in  the  young 
child  is  the  stories  and  superstitions  that  often 
impress  him.  Much  of  the  conversation  in  isolated 
communities,  especially  when  recreation  occupies  a 
very  small  place,  is  with  reference  to  experiences 
that  build  up  in  the  child  ideas  that  stimulate  fear. 
Even  the  most  thoughtful  parent,  who  is  con- 
sciously trying  to  protect  his  child,  is  unable  to 
direct  the  conversation  of  guests,  who  in  the 
presence  of  children  repeatedly  turn  with  morbid 
pleasure  to  the  recital  of  events  that  excite  fear. 
The  country  child  has  a  greater  degree  of  solitude 
than  the  suburban  or  town  child.  Often  he  is 
expected  to  go  into  dark  buildings  at  night  or 
travel  the  road  for  long  stretches  where  there  are 
no  inhabitants.  If,  by  any  process,  fear  has  been 


FEAR  113 

suggested,  it  becomes  easy  for  the  child  through 
his  imagination  to  suffer  keenly  and  to  picture 
episodes  and  dangers  that  augment  earlier  fear 
experiences.  If  country  parents  clearly  saw  the 
difficulties  of  the  child,  many  of  these  early  frights 
could  be  prevented.  The  rural  child  is  also  liable 
to  have  early  knowledge  of  death  under  such 
circumstances  as  to  add  a  morbid  character  to  the 
funeral  or  the  death.  Such  happenings  stand  out 
in  the  life  of  the  country  child  with  more  distinct- 
ness and  therefore  have  greater  consequence  than 
would  be  true  if  the  environment  were  more  filled 
with  occurrences.  In  some  communities  a  great 
deal  of  fear  suggestion  originates  in  the  school  or 
church.  Boris  Sidis  tells  us  that  the  wrong  sort 
of  Sunday-school  teaching  is  a  serious  source  of 
later  morbid  obsessions  and  nervous  difficulties. 
The  atmosphere  of  some  country  churches  pro- 
vides a  sympathetic  background  for  suggestions 
of  fear  in  the  Sunday-school  instruction.  The 
rural  cemetery  sometimes  becomes  a  cause  of 
unfortunate  early  suggestions.  Many  of  these 
childhood  impressions  remain  in  the  life  and  do 
harm. 

The  child's  risk  of  injury  through  the  emotion 
of  fear  is  not,  however,  confined  merely  to  the 
realm  of  physical  danger.  The  child,  like  the 
adult,  can  suffer  from  the  psychic  by-products  of 
fear.  In  the  school,  especially,  teachers  who  do  not 


114  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

understand  the  working  of  the  minds  of  children, 
or  who  are  indifferent  to  the  welfare  of  children, 
may  by  their  punishments,  their  criticisms,  their 
discipline,  and  their  use  of  ridicule  lessen  the 
child's  self-confidence  and  magnify  the  timidity  of 
some  children  so  that  the  inherent  weakness  of  the 
personality  is  greatly  increased.  We  cannot  appre- 
ciate the  full  significance  of  these  experiences  for 
the  rural  child  unless  we  put  ourselves  in  his  place 
and  realize  that  he  supposes,  in  many  cases,  that 
his  punishment  or  criticism  becomes  generally 
known  in  the  community.  It  is  this  interest  of 
the  country  community  in  school  punishments  and 
failures  that  makes  them  so  prolific  in  permanent 
injuries  to  the  child.  There  is  risk  also  that  the 
comparative  solitude  of  the  child,  his  very  limited 
opportunity  to  meet  strangers,  construct  in  his 
life  a  permanent  self-consciousness  which  later 
makes  association  difficult.  This  timidity  is  a 
mild  form  of  fear,  and  the  self-consciousness  of 
later  life  is  an  offshoot  of  the  emotion  of  fear. 

There  is  one  reaction  of  this  emotion  in  country 
life  which  fortunately  is  not  common.  There  are 
brutal  parents  and  drunken  parents  and  nervously 
irresponsible  parents  in  the  rural  environment  as 
elsewhere.  In  such  homes  unspeakable  exhibitions 
of  anger  or  cruelty  play  havoc  with  the  child. 
Probably  imagination  cannot  picture  the  suffering 
of  children  who  in  isolated  country  homes  endure 


FEAR  115 

fearful  punishment  or  fear  terrible  things  that  they 
suppose  liable  to  come  upon  them.  The  close  con- 
tact of  family  with  family  in  the  city  largely  pro- 
tects the  child  from  such  experiences.  In  addition 
the  protective  societies  are  always  ready  in  the 
urban  environment  to  enter  such  homes  for  the 
protection  of  the  child  when  once  the  character  of 
the  home  becomes  known.  The  average  rural  com- 
munity will  endure  a  great  deal  before  it  will  com- 
plain against  a  home  or  make  any  practical  effort 
to  rescue  the  child  from  cruel  or  irresponsible 
parents.  Social  workers  in  the  country  know 
from  personal  experience  case  after  case  that 
illustrates  the  unwillingness  of  the  usual  com- 
munity to  handle  with  dispatch  and  justice 
cases  of  family  cruelty.  The  injury  that  a  young 
child  may  receive  from  such  usage  is  tremendous. 
When  it  becomes  more  generally  known  in  the 
rural  community  what  a  fearful  thing  it  is  to  charge 
young  life  with  fear,  public  opinion  will  deal 
more  heroically  and  more  quickly  with  such  homes. 
The  meager  and  routine  life  of  many  children 
in  the  country  decreases  their  native  sense  of 
confidence  and  builds  up  a  hesitancy  in  facing 
new  environment  and  new  conditions  of  life.  A 
good  deal  of  the  conservatism  of  rural  people  is 
built  upon  a  sense  of  fear  in  facing  new  things . 
Many  country  children  endowed  with  consider- 
able talent  are  unable  to  express  their  powers 


n6  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

because  of  lack  of  courage.  Their  early  experi- 
ences have  weakened  their  willingness  to  venture, 
or  their  feelings  of  self-sufficiency.  As  a  result  they 
react  to  new  opportunity  with  fear.  In  this  way 
much  of  the  promise  of  country  life  is  perma- 
nently lost.  Potential  leaders  never  exercise  their 
natural  gift.  It  must  be  even  more  true  of  poten- 
tial artists,  inventors,  and  speakers.  Such  organ- 
izations as  the  Boy  Scouts,  the  Campfire  Girls,  and 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  do  a  very 
great  service  to  the  country  child  in  providing 
opportunity  in  the  group  for  adventure  experi- 
ences, rivalry,  and  contact.  They  rescue  the  child 
from  the  pressure  of  routine  and  uniformity  and 
give  confidence  to  the  native  ambitions.  At  the 
present  time  one  of  the  pathetic  losses  of  country 
life  is  the  check  that  self-consciousness  has  upon  a 
multitude  of  persons  in  forbidding  them  free 
expression  in  their  community  associations.  Each 
in  turn  is  hampered  by  regard  for  the  others.  This 
explains  the  awkwardness,  the  hesitations,  and 
the  barrenness  of  a  great  deal  of  the  social  life 
of  the  country.  Fortunately  organized  play  and 
co-operative  effort  are  in  recent  years  melting 
away  this  hampering  self-consciousness  in  the 
gatherings  of  country  people.  The  greater  the 
isolation,  the  greater  we  find  the  lack  of  freedom 
on  the  part  of  country  people  at  their  gatherings. 
Such  self-consciousness  is  a  derivative  of  the 


FEAR  117 

emotion  of  fear  and  gets  its  original  impetus  from 
childhood  experiences. 

In  estimating  the  value  of  any  rural  organiza- 
tion, it  is  necessary  always  to  take  into  account 
the  good  it  accomplishes  merely  by  providing  a 
meeting-ground  for  the  people  of  the  neighborhood 
or  community.  Sometimes  when  the  organiza- 
tion carries  out  its  formulated  purpose  most 
imperfectly,  it  nevertheless  adds  much  to  the  life 
of  the  people  because  it  draws  them  into  associa- 
tion and  permits  them  to  have  the  experiences 
that  do  so  much  to  remove  shyness  and  self- 
consciousness.  The  urban  observer  of  country 
organizations  often  judges  them  most  erroneously 
because  he  assumes  that  the  business  at  hand 
should  be  disposed  of  expeditiously.  Just  as  he 
often  misjudges  the  farmer's  industrial  habits 
because  the  farmer  is  so  willing  to  drop  work 
temporarily  for  a  conversation  with  the  casual 
visitor,  so  he  forgets  that  one  of  the  purposes 
of  the  meeting  together  of  country  people  is 
the  opportunity  they  have  for  free  conversa- 
tion. Were  the  rural  people  to  come  together 
and  do  their  business  with  dispatch,  and  then 
return  to  their  homes,  a  large  measure  of  the 
worth  of  their  association  would  be  lost.  It  is 
distinctly  unfair  to  make  any  comparison  at  this 
point  with  the  apparently  more  business-like 
methods  of  urban  organizations.  In  the  one  case 


n8  THE  RUKAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

the  members  of  the  group  are  satisfied  with  group 
contact  and  wish  only  to  get  through  their  business 
as  quickly  as  possible;  in  the  other  case  there  is  a 
deep  human  craving  for  the  advantages  of  associa- 
tion, and  therefore  the  meeting  lengthens  out  or  is 
preceded  by  a  delay  in  starting  work,  which  gives 
the  people  one  of  the  satisfactions,  the  desire  for 
which  led  them  to  come  together. 

It  is  generally  realized  that  one  of  the  great 
burdens  of  rural  life  is  its  comparative  isolation. 
This  condition  provides  opportunity  for  the  emo- 
tion of  fear  in  one  way  or  another  to  express  itself. 
Many  of  the  women  in  the  country  suffer  keenly 
when  they  are  left  alone  or  when  for  any  reason 
the  sense  of  isolation  is  aroused.  Occasionally  in 
order  to  be  free  from  this  hardship  the  family 
moves  to  town.  In  some  rural  sections  of  the 
South,  because  of  race  friction,  both  husband  and 
wife  feel  in  the  isolated  homestead  a  degree  of 
fear  which  even  mounts  at  times  to  terror.  No 
one  can  understand  the  occasional  uprising  against 
negroes  accused  of  crime,  in  the  isolated  rural 
sections  of  the  South,  unless  he  sees  the  emotion 
of  fear  working  constantly  in  the  everyday  life 
of  the  people.  The  possibility  of  arousing  the 
feeling  of  fear  in  the  lonely  house  hampers  the 
freedom  of  the  farmers  to  a  considerable  degree. 
The  father  and  mother  often  find  it  impossible  to 
go  out  at  night  together  because  of  the  unwilling- 


FEAR  119 

ness  of  the  children  to  be  left  alone.  Sometimes 
it  is  necessary  that  the  parents  should  leave  the 
house  in  charge  of  the  older  children,  and  as  a 
result  the  children  experience  long  hours  full  of 
fearful  imaginings,  which  may  build  up  a  preju- 
dice in  their  minds  against  the  rural  environment. 
Country  people  have  the  habit  of  attending  evening 
meetings  and  parties  as  family  groups,  in  a  way 
that  is  never  duplicated  in  the  urban  environment. 
The  reason  for  this  is  the  fact  that  it  does  not  seem 
safe  to  leave  the  younger  members  of  the  family  at 
home.  To  some  extent  this  is  a  deterrent  against 
association,  for  it  is  sometimes  difficult  to  get  all 
the  members  of  the  family  ready  for  a  social  event. 
The  tired  mother,  rather  than  prepare  her  five  or 
six  children  for  a  decent  appearance  at  the  church 
social  or  neighborhood  party,  gives  up  the  idea  of 
going. 

Modern  communication,  particularly  the  tele- 
phone, has  been  of  immense  service  in  lessening  to 
a  considerable  degree  the  sense  of  fear  in  rural 
isolation.  Much,  however,  depends  upon  the 
temperament  of  the  persons  concerned.  Every- 
one familiar  with  country  life  knows  numerous 
cases  where  mothers  or  children  become  captive 
to  the  emotion  of  fear  and  suffer  terribly  as  a 
result  of  their  own  morbid  imagination.  Unex- 
pected or  strange  noises  from  the  barn  drag 
many  a  conscientious  woman,  left  alone  at  home 


I2O  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

on  a  winter's  night,  from  the  house;  and,  lantern 
in  hand,  she  investigates  all  the  recesses  of  the 
barn  and  sheds,  often  trembling  with  fear  as  she 
performs  the  task  she  dare  not  leave  undone,  and 
by  her  own  fear  suggesting  terror  to  the  child. 

In  his  fascinating  picture  of  English  rural  life 
nearly  a  century  ago,  William  Howitt  gives  us  this 
vivid  description  of  the  discomforts  of  rural 
isolation : 

The  citizen  who  lives  in  a  compact  house  in  the  center 
of  a  great  city,  whose  doors  and  windows  are  secured  at 
night  by  bars,  bolts,  shutters,  locks,  and  hinges  of  the  most 
approved  and  patented  construction;  who,  if  he  look  out 
of  doors,  looks  upon  splendid  rows  of  lamps;  upon  human 
habitations  all  about  him;  whose  house  can  only  be  assailed 
behind  by  climbing  over  the  tops  of  other  houses;  or 
before,  by  eluding  troops  of  passengers  and  watchmen, 
whom  the  smallest  alarm  would  hurry  to  the  spot;  I  say, 
if  such  a  man  could  be  suddenly  set  down  in  one  of  our 
many  thousand  country  houses,  what  a  feeling  of  unpro- 
tected solitude  would  fall  upon  him.  To  sit  by  the  fire  of 
many  a  farm-house,  or  cottage,  and  hear  the  unopposed 
wind  come  sighing  and  howling  about  it;  to  hear  the  trees 
swaying  and  rustling  in  the  gale,  infusing  a  most  forlorn 
sense  of  the  absence  of  all  neighbouring  abodes;  to  look  on 
the  simple  casements  and  the  old-fashioned  locks  and  bolts, 
and  to  think  what  would  their  resistance  be  to  the  deter- 
mined attack  of  bold  thieves; — I  imagine  it  would  give  many 
such  worthy  citizens  a  new  and  not  very  enviable  feeling. 
But  if  he  were  to  step  out  before  the  door  of  such  a  house 
at  nine  or  ten  o'clock  of  a  whiter  or  autumnal  night,  what  a 
state  of  naked  jeopardy  it  would  seem  to  stand  in.  Perhaps 


FEAR  121 

all  solitary  darkness; — nothing  to  be  heard  but  the  sound 
of  the  neighbouring  woods;  or  the  roar  of  distant  waters; 
or  the  baying  of  the  ban-dogs  at  the  scattered  and  far-off 
farm-houses;  the  wind  puffing  on  him  with  a  wild  freshness, 
as  from  the  face  of  vast  and  solitary  moors;  or  perhaps 
some  gleam  of  moonlight,  or  the  wild,  lurid  light  which 
hovers  in  the  horizon  of  a  winter-night  sky,  revealing  to 
him  desolate  wastes,  or  gloomy  surrounding  woods.  In 
truth,  there  is  many  a  sweet  spot  that,  in  summer  weather, 
and  by  fair  daylight,  do  seem  very  paradises;  of  which  we 
exclaim,  in  passing,  "Ah,  there  could  I  live  and  die,  and 
never  desire  to  leave  it."  There  are  thousands  of  such 
sweet  places,  which,  when  night  drops  down,  assume  strange 
horrors,  and  make  us  wish  for  towers  and  towns,  watchmen, 

walkers  of  streets,  and  gaslight 

This  may  seem  rather  exaggerated,  read  by  good  day- 
light, or  by  the  fire  of  a  city  hearth;  but  this  is  the  natural 
spirit  of  the  solitary  house.  It  is  that  which  many  a  one 
has  felt.  It  has  cured  many  a  one  of  a  longing  to  live  in  a 
"sweet  sequestered  cot";  nay,  it  is  the  spirit  felt  by  the 
naturalized  inhabitants  of  such  solitary  places.  I  look 
upon  such  places  to  generate  fears  and  superstitions  too, 
in  no  ordinary  degree.  The  inhabitants  of  solitary  houses 
are  often  most  arrant  cowards;  and  for  this  there  are  many 
causes.  A  sense  of  exposure  to  danger,  if  it  be  not  lost  by 
time,  is  more  likely  to  generate  timidity  of  disposition 
than  courage.  Then,  the  sounds  of  woods  and  waters; 
the  mysterious  sighings  and  moanings,  and  lumberings, 
that  winds  and  other  causes  occasion  amongst  the  old  walls 
and  decayed  roofs,  and  ill-fastened  doors  and  casements 
of  large  old  country  houses,  have  a  wonderful  influence  on 
the  minds  of  the  ignorant  and  simple,  who  pass  their  lives 
in  the  solitude  of  fields;  and  go  to  and  fro  between  their 
homes  and  the  scene  of  their  duties,  often  through  deep  and 


122  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

lonesome  dells,  through  deep,  o'ershadowed  lanes  by  night; 
by  the  cross-road,  and  over  the  dreary  moor;  all  places 
of  no  good  character.  Superstitious  legends  hang  all  about 
such  neighbourhoods;  and  traditions  enough  to  freeze 
the  blood  of  the  ignorant,  taint  a  dozen  spots  round  every 
such  place.1 

Such  fears  are  greatly  stimulated  as  the  result 
of  any  tragic  event.  Nothing  travels  so  rapidly 
amongst  country  people  as  reports  of  accidents  and 
calamities.  Occasionally  a  whole  community  is 
terrorized,  especially  when  in  their  midst  some 
undiscovered  person  is  afflicted  with  criminal 
impulse.  In  one  remote  Maine  community,  one 
summer,  building  after  building  was  burned.  The 
entire  village  was  demoralized  with  fear  and  suspi- 
cion. It  finally  became  so  permeated  with  feelings 
of  insecurity  that  everyone  suspected  his  fellows. 
It  was  a  veritable  reign  of  terror  until  eventually 
the  mentally  deficient  person  was  located. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  how  the  emotion  of 
fear,  particularly  as  it  expresses  itself  in  anxiety, 
can  be  heightened  by  a  personal  tragedy.  At  this 
point  we  touch  one  of  the  profound  hardships  of 
some  country  people.  When  the  getting  or  not 
getting  of  the  doctor  makes  the  difference  between 
life  and  death,  the  matter  of  distance  from  the 
village  where  the  doctor  is  to  the  remote  farm 
where  the  child  or  wife  lies  ill  is  of  paramount 
importance.  The  inevitable  delay  in  obtaining 

1  William  Howitt,  The  Rural  Life  of  England,  pp.  134-37. 


FEAR  123 

medical  assistance  in  such  cases  is  never  forgotten 
by  one  who  has  had  the  experience.  If  he  con- 
tinues life  in  the  country  his  sense  of  isolation  may 
be  enormously  increased  by  the  memories  of  what 
happened  or  was  narrowly  averted.  There  are 
times  also  when  the  coming  of  the  doctor  does  not 
eliminate  this  sense  of  rural  handicap  in  the  pres- 
ence of  accident  or  disease.  The  home  into  which 
affliction  has  entered  realizes  that  the  situation  is 
beyond  the  skill  of  the  general  practitioner,  and 
that  there  is  no  time  to  call  from  the  distant  city 
the  qualified  expert.  Under  such  circumstances 
many  a  mother  or  father  vows  never  again  to  be 
caught  away  from  efficient  medical  skill.  How- 
ever versatile  the  country  doctor  may  be,  he  is 
forced  at  times  to  face  responsibilities  for  which 
he  is  not  adequately  fitted.  If  he  frankly  acknowl- 
edges this,  the  anxiety  of  the  home  is  still  more 
increased.  These  happenings  are  among  the  most 
painful  experiences  of  country  people,  and  at  such 
times  the  inhabitants  of  rural  districts  suffer  a 
keen  sense  of  environmental  limitation  from  which 
the  poorest  city  family  is  protected. 

An  element  of  fear  appears  in  the  growing  group 
consciousness  of  farmers.  Any  form  of  class  con- 
test is  in  part  built  upon  an  emotional  attitude 
based  upon  the  fact  that  the  rivaling  group  is 
supposed  to  be  an  opposing  menace.  At  the  pres- 
ent time  this  is  seen  particularly  in  the  industrial 


124  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

field.  Capital  frequently  acts  in  labor  troubles 
from  a  fear-complex  basis.  The  employer's  atti- 
tude is  not  so  much  conditioned  by  the  issue  at 
stake  as  by  the  fear  that  an  imaginary  program  of 
labor  will  be  brought  forth  later,  and  the  immedi- 
ate contest  is  a  preliminary  test  of  strength.  The 
corporation  is  unwilling  to  give  way  to  pressure 
for  fear  that  additional  and  increasing  demands 
will  be  made  by  the  employees.  The  same  attitude 
is  maintained  by  the  labor  forces.  They  desire  to 
win  the  strike,  for  example,  not  merely  that  they 
may  have  an  immediate  success  and  enjoy  the 
fruits  of  victory,  but  because  they  feel  that  if  they 
lose,  they  will  lose  prestige  and  power,  and  that 
securities  already  obtained  will  slip  from  their 
grasp.  The  bitterness  of  labor  disputes  can  be 
better  understood  when  the  seriousness  of  the 
impelling  complexes  is  adequately  appreciated. 
The  farmer  also  has  his  grievances  and  his  feeling 
of  struggle  with  opposing  commercial  groups.  To 
some  extent  the  farmer's  reaction  issues  from  a 
similar  emotion  of  fear.  He  feels  that  the  middle- 
man, the  milk  contractor,  the  railroad,  the  mer- 
chant, are  attempting  to  thwart  his  efforts  for  a 
reasonable  standard  of  life.  Under  such  circum- 
stances it  is  inevitable  that  he  should  to  some  extent 
develop  class  consciousness.  He  tries  to  protect 
himself  by  identifying  himself  with  the  group  to 
which  he  belongs. 


FEAR  125 

This  class  feeling  can  easily  be  exploited,  and 
by  appealing  to  suspicion,  by  catering  to  the 
farmer's  emotion  of  fear,  the  unwholesome  type  of 
rural  politician  can  make  personal  capital  of  the 
farmer's  dissatisfaction.  The  genuine  elements  of 
the  contest  between  the  farmer  and  other  industrial 
groups  can  in  this  fashion  be  greatly  magnified. 
The  method  of  accomplishing  this  is  to  encourage 
the  farmer's  hostilities  and  suspicions.  In  other 
words,  the  agitator  and  the  axe-grinding  politician 
and  the  organizer  of  rural  grievances  may  build 
upon  a  foundation  of  fear  a  most  unfortunate  class 
consciousness.  Like  all  fear  complexes,  this  hos- 
tility, when  fully  aroused,  is  of  no  value  in  working 
out  a  program  that  will  conserve  the  economic 
welfare  of  rural  people.  It  may,  on  the  other 
hand,  cloud  rural  thinking  so  as  to  make  it  difficult 
for  the  farming  population  to  obtain  in  actual 
practice  the  economic  successes  for  which  they 
contend.  Economic  disputes  are  seldom  as  simple 
as  they  are  made  by  the  agitator  and  exploiter. 
Imbedded  in  them  are  economic  laws  that  human 
will  can  never  permanently  set  aside.  It  is  neces- 
sary, therefore,  that  even  men  suffering  from  recog- 
nized grievances  think  calmly  in  terms  of  cause  and 
effect  respecting  all  the  elements  that  enter  into 
their  problem.  This  thinking  is  increasingly  diffi- 
cult as  emotion  mounts,  and  the  less  the  emotion 
of  fear  enters  into  rural  group  consciousness,  the 


126  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

better  prepared  farmers  are  to  solve  their  com- 
mercial puzzles. 

REFERENCES  ON  FEAR 

Bruce,  H.  A.,  Psychology  and  Parenthood,  chap.  viii.    New 

York:  Dodd,  Mead  &  Co.,  1915. 
Crile,  G.  W.,  The  Origin  and  Nature  of  the  Emotions,  pp.  55- 

77.     Philadelphia:  W.  B.  Saunders  Co.,  1915. 
Edman,  I.,  Human  Traits  and  Their  Social  Significance, 

pp.  125-28.    Boston:  Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  1920. 
Frink,  H.  W.,  Morbid  Fears  and  Compulsions.     New  York: 

Moffat,  Yard  &  Co.,  1918. 

Harrington,  M.  A.,  "The  Psychic  Factors  in  Mental  Dis- 
order," American  Journal  of  Insanity,  April,  1915. 
Jones,  E.,  Psycho- Analysis,  chap.  viii.    New  York:  William 

Wood  &  Co.,  1916. 
Kempf,  E.  J.,  "Charles  Darwin,  the  Affective  Sources  of 

His    Inspiration    and    Anxiety    Neurosis,"    Psycho- 
analytic Review,  April,  1918. 
Lay,  W.,  The  Child's  Unconscious  Mind,  chap.  viii.    New 

York:  Dodd,  Mead  &  Co.,  1919. 
Long,  C.,  "Fear  and  Fantasy  in  the  Child  and  the  Authority 

Complex,"  Proceedings  of  the  International  Conference 

of  Women  Physicians,    Vol.   III.    New  York:    The 

Woman's  Press,  1920. 
McDougall,    W.,   An   Introduction   to   Social   Psychology, 

pp.  51-58.    Boston:  Luce  &  Co.,  1918. 
Shand,  A.   F.,   The  Foundations  of  Character,  Book    II, 

chap.  ii.    London:  Macmillan,  1914. 
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Early  Education,"  Journal  of  Abnormal  Psychology, 

December,  1919. 
Wallas,    G.,    The   Great   Society,    chap.    vi.    New    York: 

Macmillan,  1914. 


VIII 

PUGNACITY,  CURIOSITY,  WORKMANSHIP, 
ACQUISITION 

PUGNACITY 

The  instinctive  character  of  pugnacity  is  not 
open  to  question.  The  instinct,  however,  is  in  a 
class  by  itself;  for  in  order  that  it  be  excited 
purposes  of  the  individual  must  be  thwarted.  In 
other  words,  its  activity  is  nearly  always  allied  to 
the  previous  occurrence  of  some  other  instinctive 
activity,  or  to  some  emotion.  The  instinct  func- 
tions largely  in  modern  society,  although  its 
expression  is  necessarily  modified  somewhat  by 
present  conditions,  as  compared  with  its  simpler 
and  on  the  whole  more  forceful  expressions  in  ear- 
lier times.  This  milder  expression  of  pugnacious 
attitudes  is,  of  course,  merely  a  general  character- 
istic, since  there  are  individuals  who  are  as  quick- 
tempered and  as  fierce  in  anger,  so  far  as  their 
subjective  inclinations  are  concerned,  as  the  most 
primitive  savage  could  ever  have  been.  The 
instinct  under  control  performs  a  considerable 
service  by  bringing  forth  in  the  individual  energy 
and  courage  to  meet  the  menace  or  obstruction 
which  has  come  across  his  pathway. 

127 


128  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

There  are  some  slight  differences  in  the  expres- 
sion of  the  instinct  in  the  rural  environment  as 
compared  with  its  expression  in  town  and  city. 
These  differences  may  be  greatly  exaggerated,  for 
the  instinct  is  only  slightly  influenced  by  the  cir- 
cumstances of  environment. 

Rural  occupations  furnish  many  opportunities 
for  the  stirring  up  of  anger,  the  emotion  of  the 
instinct  of  pugnacity,  because  the  individual  comes 
in  personal  contact  with  so  many  irritations  and 
obstacles.  This  is  notably  true  in  the  handling  of 
animals.  The  higher  animals  in  their  actions  have 
the  semblance  of  human  responsibility  and  purpo- 
sive decision,  and  yet  a  stubborn  and  stupid  unwill- 
ingness to  conform  to  man's  desires.  It  follows 
therefore  that  he  who  deals  with  animals  such  as 
dogs,  horses,  and  cattle  often  feels  toward  them  as  if 
they  were  persons  who  were  deliberately  attempt- 
ing to  oppose  him.  Under  such  circumstances, 
anger  is  easily  awakened.  Anyone  who  has  wit- 
nessed the  teamster  whipping  his  overloaded  horse 
that  refuses  to  climb  the  hill  has  often  seen 
in  the  driver  the  coming  of  anger  in  a  most  re- 
pulsive form.  This  experience  is  naturally  less 
frequent  in  the  city  than  in  the  country.  In 
the  former,  moreover,  the  anger  is  likely  to  be 
suppressed  because  of  the  observation  of  the 
bystanders  and  the  knowledge  on  the  part  of  the 
driver  that  any  great  degree  of  brutality  may 


PUGNACITY,  CURIOSITY,  WORKMANSHIP,  ACQUISITION     129 

bring  him  under  the  power  of  the  law.  When 
similar  anger  arises  in  the  country  there  is  little, 
as  a  rule,  to  inhibit  it.  Not  only  hard  characters, 
but  men  of  highly  strung  temperaments,  quickly 
aroused,  express  the  emotion  of  anger  with  great 
cruelty  in  their  punishment  of  animals  who  are 
utterly  oblivious  of  the  origin  of  their  trouble. 
Anger  can  be  as  freely  expressed  in  family  life  in 
the  country  as  it  is  in  the  barnyard.  The  husband 
may  be  cruel  to  his  wife,  and  the  father  to  his 
children;  and  unless  the  community  is  unusually 
sensitive  to  such  affairs,  or  the  brutality  beyond 
bounds,  not  much  is  likely  to  be  done  to  curb  the 
instinct  of  the  despot. 

Anger  arises  rather  frequently  in  the  country 
as  a  result  of  the  personal  character  of  relation- 
ships. In  order  to  have  full-fledged  anger,  it  is 
generally  necessary  to  have  a  clear  realization  of 
the  force  that  is  hampering  one's  desires,  and  this 
comes  about  most  easily  when  the  obstruction 
issues  from  the  behavior  of  some  other  person. 
Since  in  the  isolated  environment  people  stand 
out  prominently,  it  is  not  difficult  for  the  ordinary 
collisions  between  purposes  which  must  ensue  in 
complex  society  to  take  on  a  personal  coloring  and 
thereby  arouse  the  pugnacious  instinct.  Many 
family  feuds  and  group  quarrels  of  the  rural  neigh- 
borhood start  in  these  outbursts  of  pugnacity. 
Things  are  said  or  actions  are  carried  out  that 


130  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

represent  only  a  temporary  eruption  of  anger. 
But  he  who  receives  the  injury  retaliates  in  kind. 
Personal  estrangement  follows.  The  quarrel  be- 
comes known  to  the  entire  community;  an  audi- 
ence is  provided,  and  as  a  result  self-assertion 
reinforces  the  original  feelings  of  the  fighting 
instinct.  A  long-time  hostility  arises,  which  often 
gives  opportunity  for  frequent  expression  of  the 
pugnacious  instinct. 

Occasionally,  as  in  the  case  of  family  feuds,  the 
quarrel  is  the  result  of  mental  aberration  on  the 
part  of  one  or  both  of  the  principal  characters. 
The  suspicious  and  jealous  individual  in  his  ordi- 
nary contact  with  his  neighbors  is  given,  through 
the  everyday  happenings  of  the  rural  community, 
any  number  of  opportunities  to  get  angry.  Since 
such  individuals  enjoy  the  emotion,  and  without 
doubt  are  abnormally  urged  toward  it,  it  is  not 
strange  that  we  find  instances  of  a  long-continued 
pugnacious  attitude  and  an  irrational  anger,  which, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  community's  interest, 
are  socially  most  detrimental.  One  who  has  experi- 
enced country  life  at  first  hand  is  familiar  with 
quarrels  of  this  sort  in  churches,  for  example, 
where,  at  a  supposed  slight,  a  deacon  perhaps 
withdraws  from  the  church  and  for  twenty  years 
or  more  does  not  cross  its  threshold.  The  neutral 
individual  who  comes  into  the  community  inexperi- 
enced in  rural  life  cannot  understand  the  force  or 


PUGNACITY,  CURIOSITY,  WORKMANSHIP,  ACQUISITION     131 

the  permanency  of  such  an  outburst  of  anger.  As 
a  result  of  enmities  between  persons,  churches 
themselves  develop  feuds.  In  some  towns  where 
there  are  only  two  churches,  one  sometimes  finds 
such  intensity  of  feeling  between  the  two,  that  it 
is  really  ludicrous  to  the  observer.  For  example, 
in  one  small  rural  community  if  a  book  agent  com- 
ing to  the  town  should  sell  a  book  to  a  member 
of  one  church,  as  soon  as  this  fact  became  known 
to  the  members  of  the  other,  he  could  do  no  business 
with  them;  and  the  strange  thing  in  this  particular 
instance  is  that  no  one  in  the  community  has  a 
very  clear  knowledge  as  to  what  the  trouble  was 
all  about.  Somewhere,  sometime,  years  before,  an 
individual  quarrel  between  leading  members  of 
the  two  churches  had  occurred,  and  the  anger 
generated  passed  over  into  the  entire  church 
membership.  The  vanity  that  issues  from  self- 
assertion  and  the  traditions  that  are  carried  forward 
in  an  isolated  community  kept  the  quarrel  fresh, 
to  the  utter  moral  and  social  demoralization  of  the 
community. 

CURIOSITY 

Whether  curiosity  is  a  pure  instinct  or  not  is  a 
problem  for  the  psychologist.  At  present  there  is 
not  unanimity  of  opinion  regarding  this.  There 
is,  however,  no  dispute  about  the  fact  that  there 
are  certain  attitudes  of  mind,  belonging  under  the 
term  curiosity,  that  are  expressed  with  the  vigor 


132  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

of  instinctive  behavior.  Certainly  one  knows 
little  of  rural  life  who  does  not  appreciate  the 
significance  of  curiosity  in  the  country.  The 
biological  purpose  of  curiosity  appears  to  be 
increase  of  knowledge.  It  leads  the  individual  to 
the  strange  and  partly  understood  object,  that 
greater  acquaintance  and  understanding  may 
result.  In  the  country,  curiosity  seems  to  function 
abnormally  with  reference  to  persons,  owing  doubt- 
less to  the  lack  of  gregarious  experience  which  the 
individuals  feel. 

Curiosity  in  the  country  allies  itself  with  other 
instincts,  such  as  self-assertion,  fear,  and  pugnacity. 
Neighbors  are  always  on  the  qui  vive  regarding  one 
another,  their  eyes  ever  opened  for  some  peculiar 
and  revealing  event.  It  seems  as  if  they  are 
particularly  keen  upon  discovering  unpleasant 
things,  especially  such  as  bring  someone  into 
disrepute.  It  is  here  that  gossip  starts.  One 
might  define  gossip  as  a  depraved  product  of  curi- 
osity. Country  people  are  very  fond  of  gossip; 
indeed  gossip  may  become  one  of  the  popular 
recreations  of  the  rural  group.  It  is  difficult  to 
bring  together  any  gathering  without  at  least  one 
who  personifies  gossip  and  who  makes  use  of  the 
opportunity  to  talk  about  all  manner  of  things 
that  do  not  properly  concern  the  public. 

The  love  of  gossip  is  not  a  possession  of  rural 
people  because  of  any  inherent  peculiarity  on 


PUGNACITY,  CURIOSITY,  WORKMANSHIP,  ACQUISITION     133 

their  part;  rather  it  is  the  fruit  of  an  isolated  and 
barren  environment.  If  the  gregarious  life  tempts 
to  frivolity,  the  conditions  of  isolation  lead  one 
easily  into  gossip.  Any  group  of  people  with  little 
of  interest  and  much  hard  work  and  few  contacts 
finds  relief  in  gossip.  The  rural  community  can 
largely  rid  itself  of  this  fault  which  hampers  its 
progress,  by  multiplying  its  interests,  its  contacts 
with  the  city,  and  by  encouraging  a  greater  degree 
of  intellectual  outlook.  It  is  the  school  and  the 
church  that  can  contribute  most  in  the  stamping 
out  of  malicious  gossip.  People  must  have  some- 
thing to  think  of  beyond  their  own  personal 
horizon.  Gossip  at  least  provides  an  opportunity 
to  look  out  from  one's  own  narrow  field  of  activity. 
It  represents  a  fine  human  propensity  gone  wrong; 
and  even  though  the  habitual  gossip  may  be  beyond 
recovery,  the  young  people  can  be  influenced  in 
such  a  manner  as  largely  to  prevent  the  gossips  of 
the  next  generation. 

An  agricultural  specialist  of  national  reputa- 
tion, experienced  in  demonstration  work,  recently 
made  an  interesting  observation  regarding  a  con- 
structive expression  of  curiosity  on  the  part  of 
farmers.  He  said  that  he  has  found  that  of  late 
the  best  farmers  are  not  content  with  the  mere 
demonstration  of  technique.  In  addition  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  method  they  are  asking  the  why 
of  good  agricultural  practice.  They  are  becoming 


134  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

in  a  degree  scientific  in  attitude  and  purely  for 
the  satisfaction  of  their  own  curiosity  after  learn- 
ing how  to  make  use  of  the  application  of  science 
as  worked  out  by  specialists  they  seek  to  know 
something  of  the  theory  behind  the  technique.  My 
friend  is  convinced  that  the  most  progressive 
farmers  demand  a  new  type  of  agricultural  hand- 
book, one  combining  theory  and  practice,  giving 
the  why  as  well  as  the  how,  in  a  way  that  has 
never  yet  been  attempted  by  those  writing  agri- 
cultural books  for  popular  use.  This  testimony 
suggests  at  least  that  one  of  the  fruits  of  recent 
agricultural  education  will  be  the  lifting  of  farm- 
ing more  commonly  to  an  intellectual  level  com- 
parable to  that  of  the  professions.  The  good 
farmers  will  no  longer  demand  the  quickest  state- 
ment of  method  and  turn  with  indifference  from 
the  instruction  that,  by  appealing  to  the  instinct 
of  curiosity,  attempts  to  build  up  an  intellectual 
appreciation  of  the  farming  vocation.  Those  who 
assume  leadership  in  agricultural  extension  work 
surely  ought  to  encourage  the  farmer's  curiosity 
with  reference  to  the  meaning  of  their  own  indus- 
trial processes.  This  is  one  way  to  assist  farmers  in 
developing  a  higher  vocational  efficiency  and  a 
more  satisfying  rural  culture.  Farmers  are  not 
different  from  other  workers.  They  are  not  all 
content  merely  with  knowing  how  to  do  something 
skilfully  and  with  profit. 


PUGNACITY,  CURIOSITY,  WORKMANSHIP,  ACQUISITION     135 
WORKMANSHIP 

There  is  a  native  love  of  making  things  one's 
self  that  appears  early  in  childhood  and  seems 
always  to  be  characteristic  of  the  human  being. 
This  desire  is  by  many  considered  the  expression 
of  an  instinct  called  the  instinct  of  workmanship. 
This  instinct  has  been  given  various  names. 
Whether  workmanship  is  considered  a  pure  instinct 
or  not,  there  is  universal  agreement  as  to  its  great 
importance  in  modern  life.  We  are  all  conscious 
that  modern  industry  largely  strips  from  a  multi- 
tude of  persons  any  satisfactory  sense  of  creation. 
The  desire  for  self-expression  through  workman- 
ship is  denied,  and  the  worker  is  made  a  mere 
wage-earner.  Of  course  he  is  discontented,  and 
however  large  his  wage,  and  however  much  he 
may  be  able  to  lift  his  standard  of  living  by 
increased  income,  he  is  nevertheless  irritated  by  an 
occupation  that  denies  satisfaction  to  a  tremen- 
dous human  craving. 

As  we  study  the  instinct  of  workmanship  as  it 
operates  in  the  rural  environment  we  find  that  it 
has  a  more  fortunate  opportunity  for  expression. 
On  the  farm  one  does  do  things  that  give  a  sense 
of  accomplishment.  This  is  especially  true  of  the 
owner  of  the  farm,  who  is  free  to  carry  out  his 
own  purposes.  Farm  improvements,  successful 
cultivation,  skilful  animal-breeding,  and  even  the 
minor  making  of  things  with  tools,  which  to  some 


136  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

extent  is  still  present  in  the  country,  are  ways  by 
which  the  instinct  reaches  self-expression.  To  a 
large  degree  the  work  of  one's  hands  stands  forth 
in  the  country  as  something  relatively  permanent. 
The  maker  of  shoes,  who  carries  on  one  process, 
never  can  have  the  satisfaction  of  the  farmer  because 
he  never  finishes  anything  and  is  no  craftsman. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  one  aspect  agricultural 
occupation  gives  less  satisfaction  for  the  instinct 
of  workmanship  that  do  some  other  lines  of 
service  that  flourish  especially  in  the  city.  The 
major  operations  of  the  farmer  are  never  perma- 
nent. He  brings  forth  a  transitory  product,  which 
to  fulfil  its  economic  destiny  must  pass  from  the 
farmer  to  market.  However  splendid  the  field  of 
corn,  it  must  eventually  be  cut  and  pass  from  sight. 
However  magnificent  the  yield  of  fruit,  the  farmer 
can  feast  his  eyes  on  his  accomplishment  for  a 
very  limited  space  of  time.  The  apples  must  be 
picked,  barreled,  and  sent  away,  and  with  another 
season  the  same  series  of  activities  must  be  gone 
through.  It  is  an  abounding  satisfaction,  and 
one  that  is  given  to  few  in  modern  life,  to  carry 
on  work,  the  product  of  which  remains  in  evidence 
for  a  long  period  of  time.  This  is  the  rich  reward 
given  to  the  architect;  the  physician  and  the 
teacher  share  the  experience  to  some  extent;  the 
engineer  and  even  the  organizer  of  business  find 
opportunity  to  minister  to  the  instinct  of  work- 


PUGNACITY,  CURIOSITY,  WORKMANSHIP,  ACQUISITION     137 

manship  in  a  more  fundamental  degree  than  is 
possible  for  the  farmer.  The  farmer  deals  with 
perishable  values;  he  takes  from  nature  largely 
raw  materials;  he  cannot  follow  the  history  of  his 
own  products;  they  go  from  him,  leaving  only 
his  economic  reward.  If  the  farmer,  therefore,  is 
more  fortunately  situated  with  reference  to  work- 
manship than  is  the  average  mechanic  or  shoe 
operative,  he  is  nevertheless  not  so  fortunate  as  are 
those  who  are  in  the  professions  and  in  business. 

In  building  up  community  spirit  it  is  necessary 
to  minister  to  the  instinct  of  workmanship  in 
the  largest  degree  possible.  The  standardizing  of 
fruit,  for  example,  and  the  sending  to  market  of 
products  well  packed,  under  the  name  of  the 
grower,  gives  to  the  farmer  some  of  the  sense  of 
responsibility  and  satisfaction  that  the  builder  of  a 
great  business  feels  with  reference  to  his  trade- 
mark. One  of  the  reasons  for  petty  dishonesty 
and  irresponsibility  among  farmers,  often  com- 
plained about,  is  the  fact  that  at  present  there  is 
so  little  recognition  on  the  part  of  the  middleman 
and  the  consumer  of  the  personal  contribution  of 
an  individual  farmer,  who  by  his  own  toil  has 
brought  forth  from  nature  economic  values.  The 
sense  of  workmanship  may  well  be  carried  over 
into  community  enterprises. 

It  is  of  more  importance  that  the  people  of  the 
community  contribute  to  a  community  enterprise 


138  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

their  own  labor  than  a  financial  gift.  If  the  men 
of  the  community  more  often  were  enlisted  in  such 
an  undertaking,  for  example,  as  the  improvement 
of  school  grounds,  there  would  more  frequently 
be  a  deep  and  progressive  interest  in  the  education 
of  the  children.  Rural  leadership  should  ever  be 
seeking  to  minister  to  this  splendid  human  desire 
for  personal  creation,  since  from  it  come  ethical 
responsibility,  social  sanity,  and  co-operative  atti- 
tudes of  the  greatest  importance  in  the  rural 
community. 

ACQUISITION 

By  most  psychologists  the  desire  for  accumula- 
tion is  considered  a  true  instinct.  It  is  a  human 
craving  that  certainly  shows  itself  in  striking  forms 
in  the  country.  In  the  rural  environment  there 
are  from  childhood  many  opportunities  for  ac- 
cumulation. The  country  child  is  hardly  ever 
so  poor  that  he  does  not  have  some  possessions 
that  he  himself  made  or  collected,  that  are  in  a 
peculiar  sense  his  private  property.  The  instinct 
certainly  has  had  a  profound  influence  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  human  society,  and  although  it  may  have 
been  overdeveloped,  only  those  who  deny  the  moral 
right  of  private  ownership  will  question  the  utility 
of  the  instinct. 

In  rural  places,  desire  for  accumulation  natur- 
ally allies  itself  with  many  of  the  other  instincts. 
For  example,  self-assertion  is  very  largely  expressed 


PUGNACITY,  CURIOSITY,  WORKMANSHIP,  ACQUISITION     139 

through  accumulation.  The  desire  for  family 
prestige  also  forms  a  very  natural  union  with  the 
instinct  of  acquisition.  There  are  many  reasons 
why  rural  people  tend  to  be  thrifty.  They,  more 
than  their  city  brethren,  understand  the  cost  of 
things  produced,  because  they  are  always  working 
to  produce.  A  great  part  of  rural  thrift,  however, 
is  rooted  in  the  desire  for  accumulation.  This  is 
particularly  true  of  an  excessive  hunger  for 
property.  There  are  few  rural  communities  that 
do  not  contain  one  or  more  individuals  who  are 
misers  or  who  are  developing  into  misers.  The 
miser  is  without  question  a  complex  product,  in 
part  probably  the  result  of  untoward  circumstances 
in  childhood ;  in  part,  no  doubt,  a  morbid  expres- 
sion of  ambition  and  love  of  power,  and  even  a 
perverted  desire  for  self-display.  To  some  extent, 
without  doubt,  the  miser  is  a  product  of  sug- 
gestion. He  is  influenced  by  the  accumulation 
of  others,  and  himself  accumulates  to  the  largest 
degree  possible.  In  a  still  larger  measure  he  is 
the  culmination  of  habit.  Beginning  with  reason- 
able thrift,  he  ends  with  a  pathological  craving 
that  makes  it  possible  for  him  to-  endure  intense 
suffering  and  constant  privation  rather  than  to 
expend  a  proper  share  of  the  wealth  he  has  created. 
Of  course,  the  miser  is  no  peculiar  product  of  the 
rural  environment,  but  he  stands  out  more  clearly 
there  than  he  ever  can  in  the  city,  and  without 


140  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

question  there  are  influences  that  work  to  produce 
him  more  frequently  in  the  country.  Occasionally 
a  miser  will  violate  his  usual  behavior  and  make 
strange  and  unexpected  expenditures.  Such  revela- 
tions of  the  discord  of  character  are  most  curious 
and  naturally  attract  the  attention  of  the  psychol- 
ogist. It  would  seem  as  if  they  bear  testimony 
to  the  fact  that  the  causes  operating  to  produce 
the  miser  are  of  various  and  conflicting  character. 
For  example,  the  inordinate  desire  for  extravagant 
expenditure  on  the  part  of  the  growing  youth  is 
finally  too  much  curbed.  In  order  to  check  his 
inherent  disposition  toward  careless  spending  the 
maturing  adult  develops  his  inhibitions  beyond 
reason.  In  conquering  his  original  weakness,  in 
the  way  Adler  makes  clear,  he  produces  the  opposite 
vice.  The  youthful  spendthrift  becomes  the  mature 
miser.  Occasionally,  however,  the  earlier  cravings 
break  forth  and,  although  habitually  penurious, 
he  surprises  his  neighbors  by  a  spasmodic  gen- 
erosity or  extravagance. 

In  the  country  property  largely  tends  to  be  in 
the  form  of  real  estate.  This  desire  for  land  seems 
to  be  an  unreasonable  appetite  on  the  part  of  the 
farmer.  Men  become  "land-poor"  because  of  an 
irrational  craving  to  extend  the  size  of  their  hold- 
ings. They  deny  themselves  reasonable  standards 
of  life  and  subject  their  families  to  the  conditions  of 
poverty  that  they  may  have  under  their  own  title 


PUGNACITY,  CURIOSITY,  WORKMANSHIP,  ACQUISITION     141 

more  and  more  acres  of  land.  It  is  a  peculiar 
form  of  miserliness  which  seldom  flourishes  out- 
side of  rural  communities.  The  farmer  would  be 
happier  and  enjoy  a  higher  type  of  social  experience 
if  he  more  often  set  himself  against  his  peculiar 
temptation  to  add  more  and  more  land  to  his 
farm.  He  sometimes  is  so  eager  to  get,  that  he 
has  limited  opportunity  to  use.  Although  unable 
to  cultivate  thoroughly  what  he  has,  he  buys  still 
more.  He  smothers  his  finer  ambitions  in  a  crude 
materialistic  craving  for  acreage. 

The  instinct  of  acquisition  has  unquestionably 
a  conservative  influence  over  the  farmer's  thought. 
He  particularly  holds  to  the  right  of  private  prop- 
erty, and  it  would  require  a  mental  earthquake  to 
transform  him  into  a  sympathizer  with  socialist 
or  communist  practices.  His  influence  upon 
legislation  is  always  conservative  with  reference 
to  matters  that  have  to  do  with  the  rights  of  prop- 
erty. This  attitude,  as  has  been  previously  said, 
has  other  causes  than  the  desire  for  acquisition; 
but  without  doubt  this  is  one  cause,  and  good  proof 
of  this  is  seen  in  the  conservatism  that  owning  his 
own  home  produces  in  the  average  city  worker. 
The  instinct  of  acquisition  as  it  operates  in  the  rural 
community  both  advances  and  retards  progress. 
In  the  degree  that  individuals  attain  a  high 
standard  of  life  and  wholesome  social  outlooks, 
the  instinct  will  be  forced  to  take  its  proper  place, 


142  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

and  less  prestige  will  come  from  mere  ownership 
and  more  from  skill  and  character. 

REFERENCES  ON  PUGNACITY,  WORKMANSHIP, 
CURIOSITY,  ACQUISITION 

PUGNACITY 

Edman,  L,  Human  Traits  and  Their  Social  Significance, 
pp.  111-15.  Boston:  Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  1920. 

Hall,  G.  S.,  "Anger  as  a  Primary  Emotion,  and  the  Appli- 
cation of  Freudian  Mechanism  to  Its  Phenomena." 
Journal  of  Abnormal  Psychology,  July,  1915. 

McDougall,  W.,  An  Introduction  to  Social  Psychology, 
pp.  61-64  and  chap.  ii.  Boston:  Luce  &  Co.,  1918. 

Richardson,  R.  F.,  The  Psychology  and  Pedagogy  of  Anger. 
Baltimore:  Warwick  &  York,  Inc.,  1918. 

Ross,  E.  A.,  Principles  of  Sociology,  pp.  44-45.  New  York: 
Century  Co.,  1920. 

Tead,  O.,  Instincts  in  Industry,  chap.  ix.  Boston:  Hough- 
ton  Mifflin  Co.,  1918. 

CURIOSITY 

Edman,  I.,  Human  Traits  and  Their  Social  Significance, 
pp.  74-75.  Boston:  Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  1920. 

Jung,  C.  G,,  Analytical  Psychology  (C.  E.  Long,  transl.), 
chap.  iv.  New  York:  Moffat,  Yard  &  Co.,  1916. 

McDougall,  W.,  An  Introduction  to  Social  Psychology, 
pp.  59-61.  Boston:  Luce  &  Co.,  1918. 

Shand,  A.  F.,  The  Foundations  of  Character,  Book  II,  chap, 
xvii.  London:  Macmillan,  1914. 

Tead,  O.,  Instincts  in  Industry,  chap.  xi.  Boston:  Hough- 
ton  Mifflin,  1918. 

Wallas,  G.,  The  Great  Society,  pp.  45-56.  New  York: 
Macmillan,  1914. 


PUGNACITY,  CURIOSITY,  WORKMANSHIP,  ACQUISITION     143 

WORKMANSHIP 

McDougall,  W.,  An  Introduction  to  Social  Psychology, 
chap.  xiv.  Boston:  Luce  &  Co.,  1918. 

Morgan,  J.  J.  B.,  "Why  Men  Strike,"  American  Journal  of 
Sociology,  September,  1920. 

Tead,  O.,  Instincts  in  Industry,  chap.  iv.  Boston:  Hough- 
ton  Mifflin  Co.,  1918. 

Veblen,  T.,  The  Instinct  of  Workmanship.  New  York: 
Macmillan,  1914. 

Wallas,  G.,  The  Great  Society,  pp.  327-39.  New  York: 
Macmillan,  1914. 

ACQUISITION 

Hobhouse,  L.  T.,  Wheeler,  G.  C.,  and  Ginsberg,  M.,  The 
Material  Culture  and  Social  Institutions  of  the  Simpler 
Peoples,  pp.  243-53.  London:  Chapman  &  Hall,  1915. 

Lowie,  R.  H.,  Primitive  Society,  chap.  ix.  New  York: 
Boni  &  Liveright,  1920. 

McDougall,  W.,  An  Introduction  to  Social  Psychology, 
chap.  xiv.  Boston:  Luce  &  Co.,  1918. 

Tead,  O.,  Instincts  in  Industry,  chap.  v.  Boston:  Houghton 
Mifflin  Co.,  1918. 

Wallas,  G.,  The  Great  Society,  pp.  291-97.  New  York: 
Macmillan,  1914. 


IX 
PLAY 

The  play  impulse  is  so  inherently  character- 
istic of  man  that  it  is  generally  regarded  as  an 
original  instinct.  Play  appears  spontaneously  in 
children.  Animals,  especially  the  young,  also 
play.  To  deny  that  play  is  an  instinct  in  no  degree 
minimizes  its  naturalness  or  its  importance.  Play 
has  at  any  rate  the  vigor  of  an  instinct.  It 
expresses  itself  as  spontaneously  as  any  instinct; 
it  is  as  rich  in  social  significance.  (  Watson  defines 
play  as  "a  form  of  instinctive  activity  the  stimulus 
to  which  is  unquestionably  in  doubt."1  Several 
theories  have  been  advanced  to  account  for  the 
origin  of  play,  but  none  of  them  seems  completely 
satisfactory.  The  explanation  of  the  source  of 
the  play  impulse  remains  a  problem  for  future 
psychology. 

There  is  no  doubt  of  the  sociological  results  of 
play.  (  Play  naturally  stands  in  contrast  with  work. 
Work  is  consciously  directed  activity  leading  to 
the  accomplishment  of  a  set  purpose.  It  is  effort 
because  it  requires  a  concentration  that  forbids 
the  spending  of  energy  upon  movements  that  do 
not  contribute  to  the  chosen  task.  Play  on  the 

1  Watson,  Psychology  from  the  Standpoint  of  a  Behairiorist, 
p.  260. 

144 


PLAY  145 

1 

other  hand  carries  with  it  a  sense  of  freedom. 
Desire  seems  at  liberty  to  follow  its  successive" 
inclinations.  Work,  therefore,  tires  one  because  of 
its  intrinsic  lack  of  interest,  its  monotonous  repeti- 
tion, or  its  denial  of  other  activities  more  appealing 
to  the  person.  Work  too  long-continued  or  too 
nerve-tiring  brings  inner  irritation.  The  sense  of 
inward  freedom  is  replaced  by  the  feeling  of 
coercion.  When  the  work  finally  comes  to  an 
end  there  is  a  craving  for  stimulation  and  under 
stress  of  disagreeable,  unvaried,  or  excessive  work 
a  demand  for  violent,  exciting  recreation. 

(This  relation  between  work  and  play  reveals 
in  part  the  social  significance  of  play.  Play  is 
tonic.  Play  also  is  renewal  of  spirit.  It  brings  the 
person  exhausted  by  work  back  to  normal  attitudes. 
It  refreshes  the  mind  as  sleep  restores  the  physical 
energy  of  the  body.  It  follows  therefore  that  play 
acts  to  preserve  the  normality  of  a  social  group. 

From  a  social  viewpoint  play  is  a  therapeutic 
agency.  Even  physiologically  play  conserves 
health.  Recreation  has  been  called  "the  positive 
phase  of  the  health  program."1  A  striking  testi- 
mony to  this  fact  has  been  expressed  in  a  recent 
book  of  travel  by  the  following  observation : 

I  am  persuaded  that  the  Polynesians,  from  Hawaii  to 
Tahiti,  are  dying  because  of  the  suppression  of  the  play- 
instinct,  an  instinct  that  had  its  expression  in  most  of  their 

1  Second  National  Country  Life  Conference,  p.  118. 


146  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

customs  and  occupations.  Their  dancing,  their  tattooing, 
their  chanting,  their  religious  rites,  and  even  their  warfare, 
had  very  visible  elements  of  humor  and  joyousness.  They 
were  essentially  a  happy  people,  full  of  dramatic  feeling, 
emotional,  and  with  a  keen  sense  of  the  ridiculous.  The 
rule  of  the  trader  crushed  all  these  native  feelings.1 

Wholesome  social  life  requires  an  adequate  amount 
of  play  and  recreation. 

Play  caters  to  one  of  the  original  motives  for 
the  existence  of  any  social  group.  People  have 
always  been  drawn  into  association  because  of  their 
need  of  emotional  satisfactions.  Social  grouping 
has  never  been  exclusively  for  economic  well- 
being  or  physical  protection.  There  also  have 
been  emotional  results  springing  from  the  together- 
ness of  the  people  that  have  held  them  in  associa- 
tion just  as  certainly  as  have  gain  or  safety.  Any 
environment  or  locality  that  does  not  furnish  a 
considerable  quantity  of  emotional  satisfactions 
that  can  be  commonly  enjoyed  lacks  a  prerequisite 
of  social  wholesomeness. 

Play  especially  yields  -  opportunities  for  emo- 
tional expression.  It  is  by  nature  social  rather 
than  exclusive.  It_affords  relief  from  the  restric- 
tions, the  irksome  necessities,  and  monotonous 
tasks  of  the  workaday  life.  It  renews  the  ancient 
racial  sense  of  freedom.  Through  the  emotional 
quickening  of  play  one  shakes  off  weariness,  dis- 

1  O'Brien,  White  Shadows  in  the  South  Seas,  p.  164. 


PLAY  147 

couragement,  egoistic  reproaches,  and  the  feeling 
of  deadly  routine. 

Play  also  quickens  thinking.  It  removes  self- 
consciousness  and  other  inhibitions  that  restrict 
psychic  activity,  and  permits  the  mind  to  function 
in  spontaneous,  pleasurable  experiences.  Play 
therefore  has  an  intellectual  significance.  It  gives 
the  mind  a  quickness  and  resourcefulness  that 
show  themselves  outside  the  play  circle;  and  as  a 
result  the  society  that  makes  good  use  of  play 
has  a  vigor  of  mind  that  is  a  considerable  social 
asset. 

Play  draws  people  together  by  melting  the 
consciousness  of  difference  or  distinction.  It 
affords  a  social  meeting  place  where  all  may 
gather,  forgetting  such  circumstances  as  tend 
toward  separation  and  dislike.  Ross  has  expressed 
this  vividly  as  follows : 

At  American  colleges  in  the  Orient,  athletic  sports  have 
been  found  to  be  arch-propagandists  of  the  doctrine  of 
human  equality.  Youths  of  diverse  races,  religions,  ranks, 
and  castes  find  their  level  on  the  football  field,  where  a 
prince  may  be  tackled  by  a  peasant,  and  on  the  baseball 
diamond,  where  the  son  of  a  pasha  may  be  caught  out  at 
first  base  by  the  son  of  a  licorice  grower.  At  first  the 
haughty,  slow-moving  scions  of  the  ruling  race — Turks, 
Druses  of  Lebanon,  or  Manchus — stand  by  watching  the 
"madness"  of  the  Americans  and  wondering  why  the 
strangers  do  not  spare  themselves  exertion  by  hiring 
servants  to  play  for  them.  But  presently  the  pulse  of 


148  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

youth  quickens,  the  game  "gets"  them,  and  they  forget 
their  rank  in  novel  excitement  and  pleasures.1 

Play  and  recreation,  by  bringing  people  to  act 
together,  quicken  the  social  sympathies.  This 
explains  their  influence  in  teaching  co-operation. 
From  the  days  of  the  primitive  man  to  the  pres- 
ent, one  of  the  social  functions  of  games  and 
sports  has  been  the  development  of  a  sense  of 
solidarity.  Men  and  women  feel  together,  think 
together,  act  together,  and  thus  build  a  foundation 
of  common  understanding  and  respect. 

Play  has  ever  been  one  of  the  effective  methods 
of  enforcing  social  discipline.  The  control  that 
issues  from  sport  and  games  does  not  carry  the 
atmosphere  of  outside  coercion,  for  it  is  organically 
incorporated  in  the  inner  life  of  the  person  who 
comes  under  their  spell.  Play  offers  an  oppor- 
tunity for  the  training  and  testing  of  leadership, 
and  at  the  same  time  those  who  should  follow  are 
taught  to  accept  leadership  loyally  and  whole- 
heartedly. No  social  influence  in  modern  life 
disciplines  the  individual  more  effectively  and  with 
lesjj  irritation. 

Any  consideration  of  the  social  value  of  play 
reveals  a  weakness  in  present-day  rural  life.  The 
people  of  the  country  take  life  too  seriously  and 
are  too  much  engrossed  with  material  interests. 
They  do  not  play  enough.  Too  little  provision  is 

1  Ross,  Principles  of  Sociology,  p.  403-04. 


PLAY  149 

made  for  recreation.  This  verdict  is  pronounced 
by  every  student  of  country  life.  If  it  be  answered 
that  the  economic  conditions  are  such  that  country 
life  must  be  keyed  almost  exclusively  to  the 
processes  of  earning  a  living,  then  the  economic 
system  is  itself  at  fault.  Rural  people  cannot 
share  the  advantages  of  modern  life  to  a  reason- 
able degree  unless  they  can  obtain  opportunity 
for  a  quantity  of  play  experiences.  The  craving 
for  play  has  been  greatly  stimulated  by  modern 
conditions,  and  the  leisure  resulting  from  labor- 
saving  machinery  has  been  largely  expended  in 
more  abundant  recreation.  Yet  the  farmer  has 
relatively  fallen  behind.  He  has  lost  many  of  the 
enjoyments  of  his  predecessors,  notably  those  that 
were  characteristic  of  the  pioneering  days.  To  be 
sure  he  has  gained  others.  Especially  has  he 
borrowed  recreational  facilities  developed  in  the 
cities;  but  compared  with  the  city  dweller  he  has 
suffered  loss. 

There  has  been  in  the  past  so  much  economic 
struggle  on  the  farms  that  there  has  developed  a 
morbid  philosophy  of  life  which  regards  play  as  a 
superficial  desire,  a  waste  of  time.  Fathers  have 
even  wandered  so  far  away  from  wholesome  atti- 
tudes as  to  covet  the  time  spent  by  their  children 
at  play,  believing  that,  with  so  much  work  to  be 
done,  games  ought  to  give  way  to  rruore  serious 
concerns.  They  have  said,  Why  should  one  play 


150  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

when  there  are  so  many  useful  ways  of  "getting 
exercise"?  Holidays  have  been  interpreted  as 
belonging  only  to  "city  folks."  Life  on  the  farm 
in  such  cases  becomes  a  never-ending  round  of  soul- 
crushing  toil. 

Any  denial  of  the  legitimate  claims  of  recrea- 
tion shows  itself  in  social  consequences  detrimental 
to  wholesome  association.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  group-mind  of  certain  country  localities 
exhibits  the  unfortunate  results  of  a  neglect  of 
recreation.  The  emotional  needs  of  the  people, 
refused  wholesome  expression  through  recreation, 
are  satisfied  in  ways  that  add  little  to  the  welfare 
of  the  community.  Much  of  the  recreation, 
frowned  upon  and  treated  as  inherently  foolish  or 
evil,  has  been  driven  into  the  leadership  of  those 
who,  by  low  moral  purpose,  encourage  vicious  forms 
of  enjoyment.  Recreation  there  is,  of  course,  for 
always  there  must  be  some  type  of  play -activity; 
but  it  is  profitless,  trivial,  aimless,  and  often,  as  has 
been  suggested,  even  bad.  The  churches  instead 
of  helping  to  solve  the  problem  look  upon  the 
recreational  situation  with  indifference,  hopeless- 
ness, or  even  with  antagonism.  When  the  churches 
become  repressive  and  teach  asceticism,  then  indeed 
the  social  life,  especially  for  the  youth,  is  bound  to 
be  pernicious.  What  such  churches  do  not  see  is 
the  baneful  effect  their  attitude  has  upon  a  splen- 
did source  of  community  morality.  They  throw 


PLAY  151 

away  a  most  important  social  instrument,  which, 
when  directed  by  constructive  moral  leadership,  is 
prolific  in  its  uplifting  influences.  This  situation 
has  been  well  expressed  by  Warren  Wilson : 

The  tradition  of  the  church  has  been  opposed  to  amuse- 
ment and  recreation.  The  church  of  our  fathers  recognized 
the  moral  possibilities  of  play  by  calling  all  play  immoral. 
The  early  Quakers  filled  their  records  in  the  eighteenth 
century  with  denunciations  of  "frollicks."  Consciously 
they  denounced  amusement,  acting  no  doubt  in  a  wise 
understanding  of  the  rude,  boisterous  character  of  the 
pioneer's  social  gatherings.  Only  unconsciously  did  the 
Quakers  cultivate  the  spirit  of  recreation  in  their  social 
gatherings.  It  was  permitted  to  have  but  few  and  repressed 
opportunities.  The  decadence  of  the  Quaker  church  is 
probably  due,  in  a  considerable  measure,  to  their  stubborn 
unwillingness  to  see  both  sides  of  this  question.  They  saw 
that  recreation  was  immoral.  They  refused  to  see  that  its 
possible  moral  value  was  as  great  as  its  moral  danger. 

Extensive  correspondence  with  working  pastors,  by 
means  of  a  system  of  questions  sent  out  from  a  New  York 
office,  has  brought  this  result.  In  answer  to  the  question, 
"What  amusements  of  moral  value  are  there  in  the  com- 
munity?" the  answer,  "Baseball,  boating,  tennis,  golf, 
bicycling,  etc."  A  smaller  number  of  recreations  was 
named  in  answer  to  the  inquiry  for  immoral  sports.  The 
subsequent  question,  "What  is  your  position  before  the 
community  ? "  brought  from  the  minister  very  often  this 
answer:  "I  am  known  to  be  opposed  to  all  sports."  Few 
ministers  realize  the  inconsistency  of  this  position.  They 
stand  before  the  community  as  the  professed  advocates 
of  public  and  private  morality,  and  they  stand  also  before 
the  community  as  the  professed  and  violent  opponents, 


152  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

often,  of  the  public  sports  which  are  known  to  the  young 
men  and  workingmen  generally  as  promoters  of  ethical 
culture  and  moral  training.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  the 
churches,  in  these  communities,  are  often  deserted  by  the 
common  people  P1 

There  certainly  has  been  of  late  a  radical  change 
in  the  rural  church  policy  regarding  recreation. 
The  church  is  more  and  more  accepting  responsi- 
bility for  recreational  leadership.  The  preaching 
less  often  antagonizes  wholesome  play.  The  moral 
by-products  of  good  recreation  are  openly  recog- 
nized, and  conscientious  effort  is  put  forth  to  assist 
in  solving  the  recreational  problem  of  the  com- 
munity. Pastors  are  themselves  learning  to  play 
even  in  violation  of  the  habits  of  a  lifetime.  At 
conferences  recreational  problems  are  frequently 
discussed,  and  only  the  dwindling  minority  con- 
tinue to  advocate  an  unnatural,  morbid  type  of 
Christianity. 

The  lack  of  play  experience  in  the  country 
environment  shows  itself  in  other  psychic  attitudes 
than  those  of  the  emotional  or  moral  field.  With- 
out question  anyone  who  has  too  little  play  lacks 
the  full  use  of  his  mental  powers.  A  dulness  of 
mind  is  likely  to  permeate  all  his  mental  contacts. 
Imagination  is  feeble.  Judgment  is  easily  nar- 
rowed and  made  partial.  Hostilities  are  more 
quickly  created  by  trivial  differences  of  opinion.  A 

1  Wilson,  Evolution  of  the  Country  Community,  p.  197-98. 


PLAY  153 

deep  sense  of  isolation  often  creeps  in,  and  the 
person  is  over-cautious,  easily  discouraged  and 
unfriendly  to  new  ideas.  It  is  a  wise  and  shrewd 
psychology  that  has  led  rural  reformers  to  stress 
group  games  in  preparation  for  new  ideas.  The 
purpose  of  the  sports  is  clearly  something  more 
than  "to  liven  up  the  blood."  This  technique  of 
playing  first  and  lecturing  afterward  bears  testi- 
mony to  the  refreshing  effect  of  play  upon  one's 
mental  equipment. 

It  is  in  the  difficulty  of  rural  co-operation,  as 
critics  of  rural  life  have  often  observed,  that  we 
have  the  most  apparent  social  limitation  due  to 
lack  of  play.  Men  who  as  children  have  had  no 
personal  knowledge  of  co-operation  through  games 
find  it  difficult  to  co-operate  successfully  even  when 
they  seriously  try.  They  are  without  a  basic 
preparation  for  adult  co-operation.  They  do  not 
know  from  personal  experience  the  meaning  of 
group  solidarity  as  do  those  who  in  village  and 
city  come  under  the  sway  of  game  loyalty.  Such 
farmers  find  individualism  ever  intruding  in  their 
attitudes,  and  although  they  organize  for  co- 
operation they  remain  a  mere  collection  of  indi- 
viduals, because  they  never  achieve  group  unity. 
This  represents  a  great  loss,  for  at  all  points — in 
business,  recreation,  politics,  social  attainment — 
rural  people  cannot  obtain  a  reasonable  degree  of 
modern  culture  and  prosperity  unless  they  stand 


154  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

together  and  work  together.  The  establishment 
of  community  recreation  is  often  prerequisite  to 
the  working  out  of  a  co-operative  program. 

Rural  leadership  must  recognize  that  difficulties 
inherent  in  the  country  environment  hamper 
recreation.  The  fewer  the  people  in  a  locality, 
the  greater  the  limitation  put  upon  the  forms  of 
play  that  can  be  successfully  maintained.  Ma- 
chinery may  make  it  possible  for  a  smaller  popula- 
tion in  the  country  districts  to  produce  the  food 
supply  of  the  nation,  but  this  economic  fact  in  no 
degree  lessens  the  social  problem.  If  there  are  in 
a  given  district  few  people,  widely  scattered,  the 
difficulty  of  bringing  them  together  for  recreation 
is  a  very  real  one.  The  less  often  the  people  can 
get  together,  the  less  easily  they  associate.  Any- 
one who  plays  infrequently  is  likely  to  be  awk- 
ward when  he  enters  any  kind  of  sport,  and  his 
knowledge  of  this  is  sure  to  make  him  reluctant  to 
join  in  a  public  game.  Rural  sections  that  have  a 
decreasing  population  are  at  the  same  time  increas- 
ing their  recreational  problem.  Rural  conditions, 
moreover,  do  not  offer  the  facilities  for  certain 
forms  of  recreation.  Such  sports  as  baseball  and 
football,  for  example,  are  with  great  difficulty 
maintained  in  the  open  country.  Generally  speak- 
ing, games  in  which  all  can  join  as  contrasted 
with  athletic  contests  have  the  larger  amount  of 
success, 


PLAY  155 

At  present  two  opposing  policies  regarding  rural 
recreation  are  advocated.  Some  desire  to  imitate 
in  the  largest  degree  possible  the  urban  types  of 
recreation.  Others  would  reduce  these  importa- 
tions to  the  smallest  point  feasible  and  encourage 
the  rural  people  to  develop  their  own  peculiar  forms 
of  play.  The  wise  program  for  rural  recreation 
will  attempt  to  harmonize  the  two  policies. 

Rural  people  are  like  urban  people  in  their 
desire  for  forms  of  recreation  that  naturally  flourish 
in  the  larger  centers.  To  the  extent  that  their 
environment  will  permit,  rural  people  will  for  some 
time  to  come  demand  just  such  recreation  as  is 
popular  in  the  cities.  For  example,  the  phono- 
graph and  the  moving  picture  do  not  appeal  less 
to  country  people  than  to  those  of  the  city.  The 
moving  picture  makes  a  universal  appeal,  not  one 
limited  to  a  certain  environment.  But  it  is 
necessary  to  recognize  that  the  small  population 
in  the  rural  environment  forbids  country  people 
certain  types  of  amusements.  Recreational  pro- 
grams should  not  deny  country  people  any  whole- 
some amusement  that  they  can  successfully  borrow 
from  the  town  or  city.  They  are  in  no  danger  of 
enjoying  too  much  gregarious  pleasure.  They 
need  all  the  wholesome  city  recreations  they  can 
support.  At  best  they  are  likely  to  have  too  little. 
They  are  restricted  necessarily  because  of  the 
limitations  of  their  environment. 


156  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  so  much  opportunity 
in  the  country  for  play  and  social  activities  that 
the  city  people  cannot  possibly  have,  that  it  will 
be  most  unfortunate  if  rural  recreation  consists 
only  of  that  which  is  imitated  from  the  city.  The 
physical  surroundings  give  play  advantages  that 
city  people  travel  miles  out  into  the  country  to 
enjoy.  The  familiarity  of  one  person  with  another, 
due  to  the  small  population  in  the  rural  district, 
permits  play  to  have  a  community  character  that 
under  no  circumstances  can  be  duplicated  in  the 
city.  The  common  experiences  of  the  country 
folk  color  all  rural  association  with  elements  that 
are  truly  distinctive.  It  would  be  folly  indeed  for 
rural  people  to  throw  away  their  intrinsic,  environ- 
mental opportunities  for  recreation  and  content 
themselves  with  the  little  that  they  can  import 
from  gregarious  localities. 

It  is  because  rural  people  are  so  neglectful  of 
their  recreation  possibilities  that  many  of  the 
students  of  country-life  conditions  stress  the  danger 
of  imitative  programs.  Rural  recreation  must  be 
largely  self-maintained.  It  cannot  be  furnished  by 
commercial  interests  as  are  so  many  city  pleasures. 
Therefore  the  inhabitants  of  our  country  districts 
need  to  discover  their  own  recreational  resources. 
They  possess  the  environment  richest  in  recrea- 
tional opportunities.  They  must,  however,  put 
forth  effort  to  utilize  these  possibilities.  In  the 


PLAY  157 

city  recreation  goes  after  one.  In  the  country 
it  must  be  obtained  mostly  by  earnest  seeking. 
Even  in  the  field  of  recreation  there  is  for  the 
countryman  no  easy,  parasitic  way  to  satisfaction. 

Reading  does  not  yet  receive  the  emphasis  it 
deserves  in  programs  for  rural  recreation.  It 
represents  one  of  the  most  satisfying  forms  of 
relaxation.  It  also  passes  easily  from  a  recreation 
to  an  intellectual  process.  It  would  be  a  great 
advantage  to  rural  people  if  they  read  more,  and 
especially  if  they  read  with  greater  discrimination. 
This  statement  does  not  mean  any  comparison  of 
the  reading  of  rural  and  urban  people  to  the  dis- 
paragement of  the  former.  Everywhere  society  is 
suffering  because  of  the  careless  use  made  of 
opportunities  for  reading.  In  the  country  there 
are  many  who,  were  they  once  awakened  to  the 
advantages  of  good  reading,  would  use  to  the 
utmost  any  opportunity  given  them.  Indeed,  one 
cannot  know  rural  life  in  the  concrete  without 
calling  to  mind  family  after  family  where  reading 
is  maintained  on  a  level  that  would  put  to  shame 
the  usual  reading  of  urban  people. 

It  is  still  difficult  in  the  average  country  district 
to  get  enough  good  books  and  periodicals  for  those 
who  love  reading.  It  must  be  frankly  confessed 
that  reading  as  a  means  of  recreation  will  never 
appeal  to  the  majority  of  any  locality.  Sports, 
games,  and  "pictures"  are  more  universally  inter- 


158  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

esting.  Reading,  however,  if  given  a  fair  chance, 
will  enlist  more  patrons  in  the  country  than  at 
present  enjoy  its  relaxation.  The  roadway  to 
good  reading  ought  in  every  community  to  be  as 
inviting  as  the  social  conditions  permit.  Even  if 
few  read,  among  them  are  sure  to  be  the  most 
thoughtful  of  the  community.  By  increasing  the 
reading  public  and  by  encouraging  good  taste  in 
the  choice  of  books  the  social  mind  of  the  entire 
group  is  elevated,  broadened,  and  invigorated.  At 
every  point  in  the  community  life  the  good  influence 
of  the  readers  shows  itself.  The  pastor  of  the 
church  is  likely  to  feel  less  intellectual  loneliness. 
The  teachers  of  the  schools  have  a  nucleus  of 
supporters  who  appreciate  the  better  type  of 
instruction.  The  readers  of  the  community  pro- 
vide contact  with  the  world  of  ideals  and  in  one 
way  or  another  become  interpreters  to  the  group  as 
a  whole. 

Some  years  ago  when  engaged  in  social  work  in 
a  frontier  New  England  community  twenty  miles 
from  the  nearest  railroad,  I  learned  at  first  hand 
the  important  service  even  an  inadequate  library 
can  render  an  isolated  rural  community.  I 
happened  to  board  with  the  family  that  housed 
the  small  collection  of  books  that  someone  had 
given  the  town.  The  library  contained  about  a 
hundred  books,  mostly  standard  fiction.  For  so 
small  a  library  it  was  on  the  whole  a  good  selection. 


PLAY  159 

Although  I  was  there  during  the  summer,  the 
busiest  season  of  the  year,  it  was  surprising  to  see 
how  well  patronized  the  library  was;  this,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  people  calling  for  books  admitted 
that  they  were  reading  for  the  second  or  third 
time  the  volume  they  carried  away.  There  was 
considerable  complaining  because  so  much  of  the 
library  was  "stories."  The  people  especially 
wanted  popular  science,  travel,  and  good  biog- 
raphy. It  seems  a  shame  that  rural  readers  do 
not  have  the  facilities  to  satisfy  their  needs.  Little 
effort  seems  to  be  made  by  anyone  to  direct  their 
reading.  As  a  result  the  books  of  the  home  are 
generally  the  product  of  some  book  agent's  exploita- 
tion. When  there  are  libraries  the  books  are  apt 
to  cater  to  the  least  thoughtful  type  of  reader. 
Science,  especially  agricultural  science,  is  largely 
lacking.  I  have  gone  over  the  books  of  rural  and 
village  libraries  in  order  to  discover  whether  the 
enterprising  farmer  is  given  any  consideration  in 
the  buying  of  books,  and  have  seldom  found  any 
modern,  useful  books  on  an  agricultural  subject. 
In  most  rural  communities  there  is  no  organized 
interest  in  the  reading  of  the  people. 

The  reading  needs  of  the  women  of  the 
country — especially  the  mothers — ought  to  be  care- 
fully considered  in  any  library  program.  The 
women  as  a  rule  read  more  than  do  the  men. 
Occasionally  they  read  to  the  men  and  children, 


160  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

especially  on  Sunday  afternoons.  It  is  particularly 
important  to  encourage  the  mothers  to  read,  for 
upon  them  more  largely  than  upon  their  husbands 
rests  the  responsibility  of  the  culture  of  the  home. 
Every  rural  library  should  contain  the  best  books 
procurable  upon  such  subjects  as  the  training  of 
children,  the  health  of  the  family,  household 
management,  and  home  decoration. 

Some  states  are  trying  to  serve  rural  readers 
by  traveling  libraries.  This  movement  ought  to 
extend  to  every  state  in  the  union,  for  it  is  one  of 
the  most  promising  forms  of  public  service.  The 
best  type  of  American  farmer  will  never  consent  to 
be  forced  into  the  peasant  class.  Rural  people 
insist,  and  rightly  insist,  upon  having  a  reason- 
able share  of  modern  comfort  and  culture.  Some 
of  them  want  good  reading,  and  their  need  should 
be  adequately  met  by  public  policy.  If  they 
cannot  get  the  proper  reading  otherwise,  it  should 
be  brought  to  them. 

One  cannot  know  the  rural  social  mind  inti- 
mately without  recognizing  that  there  exists  in 
some  degree  a  lack  of  confidence  in  a  type  of  read- 
ing that  performs  a  large  public  function.  The 
bulletins  issued  by  some  state  experiment  stations 
and  by  the  extension  department  of  some  agri- 
cultural colleges  have  not  in  the  past  been  prepared 
with  the  discrimination  that  their  social  impor- 
tance justifies.  Not  all  scientists,  certainly  not 


PLAY  161 

all  connected  with  experiment  stations,  are  fitted 
to  carry  on  original  experiments  of  value  to  the 
farmer.  Even  though  greater  and  greater  care  is 
exercised  in  the  directing  policy  of  experiment 
stations  and  extension  departments,  bulletins 
appear  that  because  of  the  too  limited  practical 
experience,  or  the  lack  of  adaptability  on  the  part 
of  the  author,  fail  to  win  the  confidence  of  the 
farmer.  His  belief  in  the  unreliability  of  a  specific 
bulletin  is  likely  to  color  his  attitude  toward  a 
form  of  publication  of  greatest  value  to  him.  It  is 
certainly  clear  that  farm  bulletins  must  less  and 
less  "sell  ideas  "  as  propaganda,  and  must  more  and 
more  become  careful,  well-matured  business  doc- 
uments. It  is  evident  that  this  fact  is  being  recog- 
nized by  those  who  direct  the  policy  of  our  experi- 
ment stations. 

The  farm  journals  have  a  tremendous  influence 
upon  the  thinking  of  country  people.  These 
papers,  although  of  course  differing  in  value,  are 
all  good.  From  a  literary  and  vocational  view- 
point they  certainly  are  much  more  useful  than 
they  were  a  decade  ago.  They  are  becoming 
increasingly  scientific  in  spirit  and  without  excep- 
tion have  a  serious  interest  in  the  social  welfare  of 
country  people.  They  cater  to  the  rural  family  as  an 
institution  and  serve  husband,  wife,  and  children. 

With  the  advent  of  rural  free  delivery  the 
weekly  edition  of  city  newspapers  has  lost  its  hold 


1 62  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

upon  rural  people.  It  has  been  replaced  by  the 
daily  paper.  The  farmer  in  large  measure  now 
thinks  in  both  rural  and  urban  terms  with  refer- 
ence to  current  events.  He  knows  much  more 
about  city  happenings  than  urban  people  do  about 
country  matters.  Anyone  who  wishes  to  under- 
stand the  present  rural  mind  must  fully  appreciate 
this  fact.  Farmers  are  not  merely  sensitive  to  the 
environment  in  which  they  are  physically  placed. 
They  are  also,  in  the  content  of  their  thinking, 
constantly  influenced  by  the  reading  which  brings 
them  in  contact  with  an  environment  as  wide  as 
the  interest  of  the  press.  This  is  one  of  the  fortu- 
nate conditions  that  operate  to  prevent  in  America 
a  narrow,  peasant  type  of  rural  culture.  The  group 
mind  of  the  American  farmer,  although  influenced 
by  locality  in  its  thought  content,  is  more  distinctly 
a  vocational  class  mind  than  a  mere  echo  of 
physical  environment. 

REFERENCES  ON  PLAY 

American  Country  Life  Association,  Proceedings  First  and 
Second  Conferences,  Greensboro,  N.C. 

Breckinridge,  S.  P.,  and  Abbott,  E.,  The  Delinquent  Child 
and  the  Home,  chap.  ix.  New  York:  Charities  Publica- 
tion Committee,  1912. 

Cabot,  R.  C.,  What  Men  Live  By,  Book  II.  Boston: 
Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  1914. 

Curtis,  H.  S.,  Play  and  Recreation  for  the  Open  Country. 
Boston:  Ginn,  1914. 


PLAY  163 

Gillin,  J.  L.,  "Sociology  of  Recreation,"  American  Journal 

of  Sociology,  May,  1914. 
Groves,  E.  R.,  Rural  Problems  of  Today,  chap.  vii.    New 

York:  Association  Press,  1918. 
— • — ,  Using  the  Resources  of  the  Country  Church,  chap.  vi. 

New  York:  Association  Press,  1917. 

Hart,  J.  K.,  Educational  Resources  of  Village  and  Rural  Com- 
munities, chaps,  xi  and  xiv.    New  York:   Macmillan, 

1914. 
Patrick,  G.  T.  W.,  The  Psychology  of  Relaxation,  chap.  ii. 

Boston:  Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  1916. 
Phelan,  J.,  Readings  in  Rural  Sociology,  chap.  ix.    New 

York:  Macmillan,  1920. 
Robinson,  E.  S.,  "The  Compensatory  Function  of  Make- 

Believe  Play/'  Psychological  Review,  November,  1920. 
Ross,  E.  A.,   "Adult  Recreation  as  a  Social  Program," 

American  Journal  of  Sociology,  January,  1918. 

— ,  Principles  of  Sociology,  pp.  604-17.     New  York: 

Century  Co.,  1920. 
Siedenburg,   F.,   "The  Recreational  Value  of  Religion," 

American  Journal  of  Sociology,  January,  1920. 
Sims,  N.  L.,   The  Rural  Community,  pp.   714-84.    New 

York:  Scribner's,  1920. 


THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH  AND  THE 
RURAL  MIND 

The  social  and  psychic  influence  of  the  church 
upon  the  life  of  country  people  is  likely  to  be 
underestimated  rather  than  overestimated.  The 
student  of  country-life  problems  cannot  gauge  the 
significance  of  the  church  in  country  life  merely  by 
its  membership  or  by  the  attendance  at  its  services. 
To  an  outsider  the  country  church  may  seem  to 
have  very  little  contact  with  the  life  of  most  of 
the  people;  one  who  resides  for  any  length  of  tune 
in  the  country  finds,  however,  that  in  many  unex- 
pected ways  he  detects  the  influence  of  the  church. 
In  the  country  environment  it  is  an  institution  that 
occupies  a  unique  position.  The  idealism,  the 
culture,  the  community  spirit,  indeed  all  practical 
social  service  centers  in  the  church;  and  however 
low  grade  the  organization  may  be,  or  however 
unfitted  its  leadership  as  represented  by  the 
minister,  it  nevertheless  performs  an  important 
function.  /It  suffers  at  present,  as  does  the  urban 
church,  from  a  relative  loss  of  prestige.  A  large 
number  of  country  people  neither  support  any 
church  nor  attend  any  religious  service.  But  these 
people  do  not  live  their  life  without  influence  from 

164 


THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH  AND  THE  RURAL  MIND       165 

the  church  of  their  locality.  The  city  church 
necessarily  occupies  a  narrow  field  as  compared 
with  the  country  church.  The  latter  performs  a 
function  impossible  for  the  former,  simply  because 
in  the  country  environment  there  is  no  substitute 
for  the  organization  that  consciously  ministers  to 
the  moral  and  spiritual  needs  of  the  people. 

Of  course  the  country  church  is  largely  what 
the  minister  makes  it,  or  perhaps  more  truthfully 
what  the  minister  has  made  it.  His  influence  is  a 
community  force  in  a  sense  that  can  never  be  true 
of  a  city  pastor,  however  famed  the  later  may  be 
as  an  orator  or  however  gifted  in  organization.  In 
the  rural  setting  the  minister's  personality  is 
revealed  in  large  proportions,  and  its  weakness  and 
its  strength  become  common  knowledge.  It  is 
true  that  churches  hamper  ministers,  and  that 
communities  prove  unworthy  of  a  fine  type  of  min- 
isterial guidance.  Yet  this  actually  means  that 
the  leadership  of  the  past  has  developed  a  church 
or  a  community  that  cannot  sympathize  with  a 
more  progressive  or  a  more  morally  substantial 
quality  of  service. 

Although  the  rural  minister's  work  is  tremen- 
dously important,  nevertheless  it  is  a  very  difficult 
and  trying  and  sacrificing  form  of  service.  In  the 
first  place,  the  rural  minister  is  greatly  underpaid. 
His  salary  often  does  not  represent  a  living  wage. 
He  cannot  expect  to  live  upon  his  salary  and  bring 


1 66  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

up  a  family  decently  and  meet  his  social  obliga- 
tions without  constant  worry  and  financial  struggle. 
His  living  problem,  which  may  be  aggravated  by 
the  failure  of  the  church  to  pay  his  salary  promptly, 
wears  out  his  idealism  and  makes  it  increasingly 
difficult  for  him  to  perform  the  service  he  ought  to 
render.  He  also  finds  that  in  becoming  pastor  of 
the  church  he  has  assumed  burdens  of  which  he  was 
not  conscious.  For  example,  he  often  finds  him- 
self hampered  in  his  work  by  the  petty  tyranny  of 
officials  of  the  church,  or  he  recognizes  that  he  is 
expected  to  cater  to  the  sense  of  importance  of 
some  of  those  who  pay  liberally  toward  his  support. 
It  is  not  strange  under  such  circumstances  that  the 
young  rural  minister  soon  wishes  for  a  call  to  a 
larger  church,  where  he  may  look  forward  to  more 
income  and  greater  freedom. 

This  problem  of  the  minister's  salary  must  be 
met  in  one  or  more  of  the  following  ways.  The 
farmer's  income  must  be  increased.  The  minister's 
prosperity  is  closely  allied  to  that  of  the  farmers 
among  whom  he  works.  He  cannot  expect  to  be 
paid  much  more  than  the  average  income  of  his 
associates  without  his  ministerial  efforts  becoming 
futile.  He  must  partake  of  their  usual  life;  and 
their  prosperity  is  a  condition  of  his  own  adequate 
payment.  The  minister's  lot  could  also  be  easier 
if  there  were  fewer  churches  in  the  country  com- 
munities, and  if  the  people  were  more  just  and 


THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH  AND  THE  RURAL  MIND       167 

reasonable  in  contributing  to  the  work  of  the 
church.  It  does  not  follow  that  a  prosperous 
farming  community  is  always  ready  to  do  justly 
by  the  minister.  One  who  knows  this  problem  in 
the  concrete  is  familiar  with  case  after  case  where 
the  church  drives  a  hard  bargain  and  does  not 
support  the  minister  as  it  should.  The  fact  is  that 
the  average  church  official  has  little  understanding 
of  the  community  advantage  of  a  well-paid  and 
efficient  pastor.  Of  course,  where  competition 
between  many  denominations  eats  up  the  available 
church  support,  it  is  impossible  to  pay  a  really 
adequate  salary.  In  many  localities  the  only  way 
that  a  minister  can  be  given  a  reasonable  salary 
without  receiving  support  from  outside  the  com- 
munity is  by  federating  churches.  To  be  sure, 
country  churches  can  be  subsidized  by  wealthy 
city  churches  and  by  denominational  boards.  This 
policy  may  be  justified  in  specific  instances,  but  as 
a  rule  the  country  church  must  expect  to  raise  its 
own  finances.  If  the  country  is  not  over-churched 
and  if  churches  really  minister  to  the  community 
there  will  be  less  and  less  reason  for  subsidies. 

In  the  second  place,  the  rural  minister  suffers 
from  a  lack  of  suitable  training.  There  has  been 
until  recently  little  effort  on  the  part  of  theological 
schools  to  train  men  for  the  rural  field.  Rural 
service  seems  to  have  been  conceived  as  a  sort  of 
apprenticeship  for  the  town  and  city  church.  The 


1 68  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

young  man  entering  the  rural  ministry  has  had 
little  understanding  of  the  peculiarities  of  rural 
work.  Often  his  point  of  view  has  prevented  his 
/appreciating  rural  opportunity.  He  has  tried  to 
do  what  he  could  not  do;  he  has  not  known  how  to 
try  to  do  the  things  most  important  and  most 
promising.  Because  of  this  the  condition  has  come 
about  which  has  been  so  well  described  by  Warren 
Wilson.1  Fortunately  the  theological  school  is 
changing  its  policy  and  is  making  a  very  decided 
effort  at  present  to  familiarize  the  student  with 
the  character  of  the  rural  field,  even  to  prepare 
some  candidates  specifically  for  the  country  minis- 
try. This  certainly  ought  to  issue  in  a  higher 
degree  of  efficiency  in  the  rural  ministry,  and  in  a 
more  actively  functioning  rural  church. 

A  third  difficulty  experienced  by  the  country 
minister,  especially  by  the  well-trained  minister, 
is  the  handicap  he  feels  because  of  cultural  limi- 
tation. He  cannot  easily  obtain  books  and 
magazines  that  he  needs  for  study.  He  misses 
the  inspiration  of  contact  with  the  speakers  and 
writers  of  great  reputation.  He  ministers  to  a 
group  of  people  who  do  not  share,  at  certain  points, 
his  most  captivating  interests.  To  be  sure,  he 
recognizes  the  substantial  worth  of  the  farmer's 
point  of  view,  but  still  he  misses,  somewhat,  con- 
tact with  the  scholar,  the  man  of  literary  interests, 

1 W.  H.  Wilson,  Evolution  of  the  Country  Community,  p.  185. 


THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH  AND  THE  RURAL  MIND       169 

the  experienced  social  worker.  In  conversation 
with  rural  ministers  one  finds  frequently  that  they 
complain  of  their  intellectual  isolation.  Without 
question  it  is  more  difficult  to  maintain  a  high 
standard  of  mental  activity  when  the  stimulus  of 
intellectual  rivalry  and  sympathetic  association  is 
lacking.  This  drawback,  although  inherent  in 
the  rural  environment,  can  be  reasonably  over- 
come, providing  the  minister  can  afford  books  and 
travel. 

Another  irritating  obstacle  in  the  way  of  rural 
ministration  is  the  professional  standing  of  rural 
service.  The  financial  and  other  limitations  of  the 
rural  work  have  given  urban  service  an  unreason- 
able prestige.  It  requires  real  moral  courage  and 
penetrating  insight  for  an  able  man  to  remain  in 
the  rural  field  when  he  senses  the  general  attitude 
of  his  professional  associates  with  respect  to  the 
country  pastorate.  Naturally  the  orator  in  the 
ministry  is  most  likely  to  be  in  the  city  church. 
Aside  from  this  one  gift,  urban  preachers  can 
claim  no  superiority  over  their  country  brethren. 
Scholarship,  organizing  skill,  educational  insight, 
and  the  ability  deeply  to  influence  people,  all 
flourish  as  naturally  in  the  country  pastorate  as  in 
the  city.  In  certain  respects  the  country  church, 
as  compared  with  the  urban,  is  a  more  difficult  and 
even  more  useful  field  of  service,  and  it  is  entitled 
to  the  highest  degree  of  professional  rank. 


170  THE  RURAL  MIXD  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

Another  difficulty  in  the  way  of  satisfactory 
church  work  hi  the  country  is  the  insufficient 
equipment  of  most  country  churches.  The  best 
type  of  minister  in  these  days,  one  who  tries  to 
carry  out  in  country  places  a  modern  church 
program,  as  a  rule  is  hindered  by  the  inadequacy 
of  the  equipment  at  his  command.  The  building  is 
likely  to  be  merely  a  gathering  place  for  preaching 
services,  sometimes  not  even  well  adapted  to  this 
purpose  and  seldom  affording  much  opportunity 
for  community  work.  Moreover,  to  carry  out  the 
kind  of  program  that  would  adequately  serve  the 
life  of  the  community  requires  an  expenditure  of 
money  that  frequently  prohibits  the  effort.  Per- 
haps this  handicap  is  overestimated.  The  skilled 
minister  may  be  able  to  accomplish  more  than  is 
supposed  possible  with  a  very  limited  physical 
equipment.  Happily,  in  some  communities  the 
federation  of  several  churches  has  enlarged  the 
equipment  of  the  minister  by  giving  him  one  build- 
ing for  preaching,  another  for  religious  education, 
and  perhaps  still  another  for  recreation.  While  the 
meagerness  of  equipment  may  be  overstressed,  it 
deserves  recognition  when  one  attempts  to  esti- 
mate the  social  influence  of  the  rural  church. 

In  spite  of  all  the  difficulties  that  beset  the  rural 
pastor,  he  nevertheless  is  performing  a  very  impor- 
tant rural  work,  duplicated  by  nobody  else.  The 
quantity  and  the  quality  of  his  influence  hi  the 


THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH  AND  THE  RURAL  MIND       171 

community  rest  primarily  on  his  personality  and 
his  conscious  development  of  the  resources  at 
hand.  Some  of  these  resources  are  native  to  the 
rural  environment  and  are  more  effectively  used 
under  country-life  conditions  than  in  towns  and 
cities.  The  rural  environment  tends  to  emphasize, 
to  the  thoughtful  and  well-trained  minister,  the 
causal  relationships  in  the  community  life  which 
he  serves.  The  country  minister  has  the  decided 
advantage  over  his  city  brother  of  seeing  the  full 
life  of  his  parishioners.  This  experience  of  know- 
ing the  complete  personality  of  his  church  associates 
may  be  both  discouraging  and  inspiring.  The  city 
minister  must  be  content  in  most  cases  with  only 
a  superficial  knowledge  of  his  church  members. 
The  rural  clergyman,  knowing  more  thoroughly 
those  whom  he  serves,  is  given  opportunity  for 
real  cause-and-effect  thinking  with  reference  to 
human  conduct.  He  lives  in  a  social  laboratory 
teeming  with  psychological  and  social  material.  If 
he  has  the  wit  and  aptitude  for  a  scientific  view- 
point he  becomes  expert  in  diagnosis  in  the  field 
of  human  behavior,  one  of  the  most  baffling  and 
inspiring  fields  being  worked  by  modern  science. 
In  order  to  do  justice  to  this  opportunity  around 
about  him,  the  country  minister  must  fellowship 
with  science.  Nothing  will  encourage  the  scientific 
viewpoint  more  than  the  study  of  some  physical 
science  such  as  geology,  astronomy,  botany,  or 


172  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

anthropology.  Such  a  study  promotes  scientific 
habits.  It  enriches  the  physical  environment  in 
which  the  clergyman  finds  himself  and  tends 
to  establish  sympathy  and  understanding  be- 
tween the  farmer  and  the  minister.  The  farmer 
is  by  no  means  a  thorough-going  scientist,  but 
today  he  respects  science  and  to  some  extent 
follows  it.  Therefore  he  is  closer  in  his  usual 
experiences  to  the  scientific  than  to  the  philo- 
sophical or  the  literary  viewpoint.  He  can  ap- 
preciate more  deeply  the  scientific  proficiency 
of  his  pastor  than  he  can  attainments  farther 
afield  from  his  ordinary  interests.  The  country 
minister  who  thinks  in  terms  of  cause  and  effect 
heroically  and  precisely  with  reference  to  concrete, 
current  events  in  his  own  community  places  him- 
self in  the  forefront  of  modern  moral  service.  He 
becomes  skilled  in  ministering  with  diagnostic  pene- 
tration to  the  profound  needs  of  the  people  whom 
he  knows  in  a  way  impossible  to  the  minister  who 
does  not  meet  his  problems  with  causal  thinking. 

Any  minister  who  analyzes  character  in  the 
country  environment  is  impelled  toward  an  increas- 
ing recognition  of  the  significance  of  childhood. 
He  sees  vividly  the  tremendous  influences  of  child- 
hood which  stretch  all  through  the  adult's  life. 
Such  a  pastor  emphasizes  his  work  for  parents 
and  his  work  for  children.  He  becomes  profoundly 
interested  in  the  recreation  of  the  community,  in 


THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH  AND  THE  RURAL  MIND       173 

its  cultural  standards,  in  its  neighborhood  experi- 
ences, and  especially  in  its  schools.  He  attempts 
to  minister  not  so  much  by  what  he  personally  does 
as  by  what  he  can  induce  others  to  do.  He 
develops  a  strategy  and  becomes  a  tactful  but 
persistent  social  leader.  He  has,  if  he  abides  in 
the  community  for  any  length  of  time,  the  satisfac- 
tion of  seeing  character  influenced  by  movements 
and  organizations  and  social  conditions  which  he 
inspired.  Thus  the  genius  of  his  social  leadership 
permeates  the  life  of  the  entire  community  and 
influences  human  habit  at  every  point. 

The  minister  in  the  country  finds  another 
important  resource  in  the  rural  environment. 
He  learns  the  advantage  of  familiarity  between 
persons.  The  closeness  of  social  contact  in  the 
country  establishes  a  basis  for  ethics  and  for 
social  responsibilities  by  providing  a  founda- 
tion through  intimate  interrelationships.  What- 
ever else  may  be  true  regarding  the  character  of 
neighborhood  association,  the  country  minister 
can  at  least  bank  upon  the  interest  each  person 
has  in  all  the  others.  Although  this  interest  may 
be  trivial  and  the  judgments  passed  upon  one 
another  brutal  or  unfair,  it  is  nevertheless  an  advan- 
tage to  work  in  a  community  where  the  people  are 
bound  together  by  common  concerns  and  not 
grouped  into  classes  largely  indifferent  to  one 
another. 


174  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

The  rural  minister  obtains  advantage  at  another 
point  where  at  first  it  seems  to  him  that  he  merely 
suffers  handicap.  Rural  people  very  largely  must 
produce  their  own  social  resources.  In  the  urban 
environment  professional  classes  become  expert  in 
giving  the  rest  of  the  people  recreation,  instruction, 
and  fellowship.  Each  human  need  is  catered  to 
by  an  organization  generally  founded  on  a  com- 
mercial basis.  Country  people  to  a  large  extent 
must  develop  among  themselves  opportunities  for 
the  satisfying  of  their  own  social  cravings.  Under 
such  circumstances  the  people  of  the  country  can- 
not bring  their  games  or  parties  or  organization 
interests  to  the  high  level  of  those  furnished  in  the 
city;  but  they  derive  more  benefit  from  their 
personal  contributions  than  can  ever  come  from 
the  passive  reception  of  what  others  provide  for 
money.  It  is  unfortunate  that  there  has  come  to 
be  such  an  unwholesome  craving  for  the  importing 
into  the  country  of  the  same  type  of  enjoyments 
and  activities  as  normally  happen  in  the  urban 
environment.  This  tendency  represents  a  real 
social  deterioration,  and  the  far-seeing  minister  will 
meet  it  in  large  measure  by  bringing  back  a  better 
appreciation  of  the  social  opportunities  than 
country  people  can  themselves  provide. 

The  rural  clergyman  who  takes  his  task  seri- 
ously and  analyzes  it  in  the  spirit  of  science  finds 
himself  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  his  church 


THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH  AND  THE  RURAL  MIND       175 

must  minister  to  the  entire  life  of  the  community. 
It  can  afford  to  neglect  nothing  wholesome.  It 
must  be  concerned  with  the  health  of  the  people, 
for  if  it  is  not,  the  health  of  the  people  will  not  be 
safeguarded  as  it  should  be.  It  must  concern 
itself  with  the  schools,  for  without  its  inspiration 
they  cannot  function  to  their  highest  capacity. 
It  must  give  thought  to  the  recreation  of  the  people, 
or  it  will  find  the  community  undermined  by  vicious 
influences.  It  must  have  interest  in  the  economic 
success  of  the  people,  or  it  cannot  have  the  means 
for  the  development  of  high  standards.  It  must 
look  out  for  the  reading  of  the  people,  or  an  enor- 
mous rural  advantage  will  be  lost.  It  must  social- 
ize the  moral  motive  of  the  people,  or  they  will  fall 
behind  in  the  rapid  moving  on  of  social  thinking. 
The  program  of  the  rural  church,  therefore,  must 
be  complete,  stressing  first  one  thing  and  then 
another,  and  never  interpreting  its  service  in  a 
narrow  way,  never  substituting  theology  for  reli- 
gion, or  trivial  problems  for  moral  obligations.  It 
requires  a  preaching  and  a  teaching  that  enter 
life-problems  in  their  specific  relationship  to  com- 
munity life  in  a  way  seldom  demanded  of  city 
ministers.  The  city  church  is  only  one  of  the 
moral  forces  of  its  environment;  the  rural  church 
in  the  sense  of  an  organization  has  a  monopoly  of 
the  moral  and  spiritual  forces,  and  therefore  is 
prepared  to  undertake  a  strategic  and  specific  pro- 


176  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

gram  impossible  to  its  sister-church.  Because  it  is 
ministering  to  a  constantly  changing  life,  the 
country  church  can  never  reach  finality  in  its 
efforts;  but  it  can  arrive  at  accomplishments 
which  become  the  basis  for  a  still  more  complete 
and  more  successful  religious  program.  In  this 
way  the  church  ministers  to  rural  culture,  and  its 
influence  pervades  the  entire  social  life  of  the 
people. 

For  such  a  program  the  church  must  have 
adequate  leadership.  It  must  plan  its  campaign 
with  eyes  directed  to  the  future.  Thinking  must 
anticipate  new  conditions  and  prepare  the  com- 
munity for  definite  changes.  The  age  is  rapid, 
and  its  new  situations  rush  upon  us  with  a  swiftness 
that  gives  some  a  sense  of  helplessness.  The  world- 
war  increased  this  tendency,  and  it  especially 
operated  to  do  this  in  our  rural  districts.  Rural 
leadership  must  govern  its  purposes  by  a  far- 
sighted  vision.  It  must  make  a  program  that  is 
more  influenced  by  what  is  coming  into  the  country 
than  by  what  is  already  there. 

Wise  leadership  must  minister  in  concrete 
terms  and  with  a  real  appreciation  of  causal  condi- 
tions, if  the  rural  districts  are  to  have  the  program 
needed.  In  method,  the  problem  is  one  of  efficient 
organization  and  employment  of  the  control  pro- 
cesses that  affect  human  conduct.  Skill  is  required 
as  well  as  vision.  Management  becomes  a  deter- 


THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH  AND  THE  RURAL  MIND       177 

mining  factor.  The  church  cannot  escape  from 
the  rigid  laws  that  govern  human  association. 
What  is  done  can  be  done  rightly  only  if  the  direct- 
ing leadership  has  a  substantial  grasp  of  actual 
conditions  and  the  processes  of  influential  control. 
Ministers  frequently  shun  the  atmosphere  of 
indifferent  diagnosis,  but  only  to  their  undoing  as 
social  servants.  Without  the  coloring  of  personal 
desires,  the  community  situation  and  the  church 
situation  must  be  seen  just  as  they  are. 

Emphasis  upon  team  play  is  also  demanded  of 
rural  church  leadership.  Unless  communities  can 
be  brought  into  fellowship  and  co-operation  there 
can  never  be  a  suitable  moral  program  for  the 
rural  districts.  No  community  in  the  country  in 
this  modern  time  can  adequately  function  in  moral 
or  civic  isolation.  There  must  be  found  some  new 
way  of  bringing  into  active  association  country 
communities  that  share  the  same  problems  and 
that  need  to  pool  their  resources  in  order  most 
effectively  to  meet  some  of  their  problems.  This 
emphasis  upon  the  getting-together  spirit  is  also 
required  within  the  community  itself.  The  local 
forces  need  to  become  more  sympathetic  and  more 
interrelated.  Moral  and  civic  isolation  will  forbid 
the  construction  of  the  rural  program  these  days 
demand. 

The  church  must  certainly  share  its  moral  and 
spiritual  responsibilities  with  the  school.  In  spite 


178  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

of  the  vast  accumulation  of  human  experience, 
there  is  still  in  urban  and  in  rural  places  a  feeble 
grasp  of  the  power  for  civic  and  moral  welfare  con- 
tained in  public  education.  In  a  large  degree  our 
schools  still  serve  traditions  rather  than  the  needs 
of  people  of  flesh  and  blood,  and  our  systematic 
education  outside  the  schools  is  next  to  nothing. 
And  yet  enough  is  being  done  to  reveal  what  a 
powerful  instrument  for  progress  public  education 
is  soon  to  become. 

The  church  must  bring  rural  people  to  a  realiza- 
tion of  the  significance  of  the  social  contribution 
of  an  efficient  country  civilization.  Popular 
notions  must  be  reconstructed,  that  the  impor- 
tance of  urban  society  may  not  be  so  greatly 
exaggerated.  Christianity  must  once  again  control 
industrial  concepts;  and  those  near  the  soil,  mak- 
ing the  basic  cosmic  contribution  of  human 
endeavor,  must  be  given  the  social  recognition  that 
false  ideals  have  denied.  This  is  fundamental,  for 
the  present  social  changes  tend  more  and  more 
to  create  in  the  individual  the  necessity  of  feeling 
social  significance  and  social  relationships.  Eco- 
nomic justice  for  the  farmer  is  included  in  his 
social  appreciation. 

Revelation  must  be  made  of  the  resources  of 
the  rural  community.  At  present  in  few  rural 
places  are  the  natural  resources  making  a  reason- 
able yield  in  moral  results.  It  is  this  which  gives 


THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH  AND  THE  RURAL  MIND       179 

some  communities  the  aspect  of  moral  and  social 
destitution — a  poverty-spot  from  which  vital  per- 
sons are  expected  to  flee.  A  program  that  appre- 
ciates the  moral  resources  of  the  rural  community 
can  remedy  this  unhappy  situation. 

Finally,  the  church  must  set  its  back  against 
an  unreasonable  individualistic  interpretation  of 
life,  an  interpretation  justified  neither  by  science 
nor  by  the  conditions  of  modern  life.  Ethics  must 
be  socialized.  Morality  must  be  stated  in  terms 
of  wide  association.  Religion  must  function  in 
forms  of  normal  service.  This  imperative  part  of 
a  comprehensive  social  program  for  the  country 
most  of  all  will  test  the  vitality  of  the  rural 
churches. 


REFERENCES  ON  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH  AND 
THE  RURAL  MIND 

Butterfield,   K.   L.,   The  Country  Church  and  the  Rural 

Problem.     Chicago:  University  of  Chicago  Press,  1911. 
Earp,  E.  L.,  The  Rural  Church  Movement.    New  York: 

Methodist  Book  Concern,  1914. 
Galpin,  C.  J.,  Rural  Life,  chap.  xi.    New  York:   Century 

Co.,  1918. 
Gill,  C.  O.,  "Social  Control:  Rural  Religion,"  Publications 

of  the  American  Sociological  Society,  Vol.  XI. 
Gill,  C.  O.,  and  Pinchot,  G.,  The  Country  Church.    New 

York:  Macmillan,  1913. 
Groves,  E.  R.,  Rural  Problems  of  Today,  chap.  iv.     New 

York:   Association  Press,  1918. 


180  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

Groves,  E.  R.,  Using  the  Resources  of  the  Country  Church. 

New  York:  Association  Press,  1917. 
Phelan,  J.,  Readings  in  Rural  Sociology,  chap.  xv.    New 

York:  Macmillan,  1920. 
Sims,  N.  L.,  The  Rural  Community,  pp.  692-714.    New 

York:  Scribner's,  1920. 
Vogt,  P.  L.,  Introduction  to  Rural  Sociology,  chaps,  xvii, 

xviii.    New  York:  Apple  ton,  1917. 
Wilson,  W.  H.,  The  Church  and  the  Open  Country.    New 

York:  Missionary  Educational  Movement,  1911. 


XI 

THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  RURAL 
ORGANIZATION 

In  organization  the  rural  community  has  lagged 
behind  the  urban.  On  account  of  size  and  diver- 
sity, the  social  and  commercial  interests  of  the 
towns  and  cities  necessarily  have  to  organize. 
These  conditions  inevitably  force  the  organization 
of  every  group  of  people  associated  in  a  common 
undertaking.  An  unorganized  enterprise  in  such  a 
complex  environment  has  little  chance  of  main- 
taining itself.  On  the  other  hand  many  of  the 
influences  of  rural  life  tend  to  make  country  people 
unwisely  negligent  in  the  organization  of  their 
common  interests.  Fortunately  this  is  not  now  so 
characteristic  of  country  people  as  formerly  it  was. 
The  contact  of  country  and  town  along  lines  of 
commerce  has  driven  into  the  consciousness  of 
rural  people  the  necessity  of  their  being  better 
organized  as  a  means  of  self-protection. 

Successful  organization  rests  of  course  upon  a 
basic  psychology.  Now  that  this  is  being  more 
generally  recognized,  it  is  becoming  the  modern 
practice  in  any  undertaking  that  has  to  do  with 
people  to  attempt  first  of  all  a  psychological  analy- 
sis. To  a  greater  degree  than  most  people  realize, 
181 


1 82  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

behind  the  successful  functioning  of  large  corpora- 
tions and  powerful  organizations  there  has  been 
built  up  a  detailed  and  definite  body  of  psycho- 
logical principles.  This  is,  however,  largely  con- 
fined to  urban  affairs.  As  a  result  organizations 
that  conserve  rural  interests,  except  as  they 
pattern  after  urban  institutions,  have  little  psy- 
chological material  of  value  in  the  construction 
of  their  policies.  Nevertheless  no  one  doubts 
that  psychological  laws  operate  upon  country 
people  just  as  certainly  as  upon  city  people. 
Country-life  institutions  need  a  double  psycho- 
logical basis.  There  are  certain  principles  of  mind 
behavior  that  condition  any  organization  whether 
it  serves  people  living  in  the  urban  or  in  the  rural 
environment.  The  larger,  the  more  complex,  and 
the  more  in  contact  with  urban  life  the  rural  organ- 
ization, the  more  it  is  concerned  with  these  com- 
mon principles.  Since  any  rural  organization 
ministers  to  country  people  and  adapts  itself  to 
them,  it  follows  that  in  addition  to  this  common, 
basic  psychology  behind  all  successful  organization 
there  are  other  psychic  factors  that  must  be  taken 
into  account.  In  so  far  as  country  people  because 
of  their  environmental  experiences  have  their  sepa- 
rate social  mind,  that  fact  must  be  reckoned  with 
by  those  who  shape  the  policy  and  by  those  who 
carry  on  the  undertakings  of  any  organization  that 
hopes  successfully  to  minister  to  rural  needs. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  RURAL  ORGANIZATION         183 

The  urban  group  mind  is  more  generally  under- 
stood than  the  rural  group  mind,  and  therefore 
rural  organization  has  more  of  the  element  of 
experiment,  more  of  the  trial-and-error  procedure, 
than  is  true  of  city  organizations.  The  value  of 
psychology  in  treating  any  social  problem  and 
particularly  in  the  development  of  organization 
policy  is  a  recent  discovery,  for  it  is  only  of  late 
that  psychology  has  had  knowledge  enough  of  the 
operation  of  law  in  human  conduct  to  be  of  much 
assistance  to  practical  men.  The  greater  part  of 
the  valuable  information  psychology  is  beginning 
to  collect  regarding  the  social  behavior  of  men  and 
women  has  been  developed  within  our  own  genera- 
tion, particularly  during  the  last  ten  years.  The 
full  meaning  of  this  remarkable  progress  of  a 
fundamental  science  cannot  as  yet  show  itself.  A 
new  source  of  social  assistance  has  been  provided  for 
all  who  attempt  to  influence  men  and  women  for 
evil  or  for  good.  Until  recently  those  who  studied 
psychology  at  college  found  the  science  content 
with  a  description  which  was  largely  formal. 
Today  every  department  of  human  conduct  is 
being  investigated  that  scientific  principles  may  be 
established,  and  to  a  considerable  extent  we  have  a 
body  of  knowledge  that  discloses  causes  as  they 
actually  work  in  the  association  of  men  and  women. 

We  have  the  beginning  of  a  rural  psychology. 
The  farmer,  of  course,  shares  the  common  psychic 


184  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

life  of  his  period  and  his  locality.  In  part  psychol- 
ogy must  understand  him  by  its  knowledge  of  the 
common  experiences  and  practices  of  his  race,  his 
nationality,  his  geographical  section,  his  political 
party,  his  religious  faith,  and  his  social  ideals.  No 
rural  organization  prospers  long  in  dealing  with  its 
problems  unless  it  gathers  a  rather  clear  notion  of 
this  part  of  the  farmer's  life.  The  farmer,  however, 
has  special  vocational  characteristics  that  appear 
in  his  psychic  life.  These  provide  the  special  field 
of  rural  psychology.  These  psychic  character- 
istics which  to  an  extent  separate  rural  and  urban 
people,  tillers  of  the  soil  and  other  workers,  have 
much  to  do  with  determining  the  policy  of  any 
rural  organization.  These  characteristic  psychic 
elements  result  from  the  farmer's  vocation,  his 
physical  environment,  and  from  rural  traditions. 
These  experiences  of  the  farmer  necessarily  give 
him  a  somewhat  different  point  of  view  from  that 
of  the  man  who  mines,  or  serves  his  customer 
across  the  counter,  or  works  in  the  factory  at  his 
machine.  Much  has  been  written  regarding  the 
special  vocational  experiences  of  the  farmer.  We 
notice  how  concerned  he  is  with  weather  and  other 
physical  circumstances  largely  outside  his  control. 
From  the  study  of  primitive  man  we  see  the  begin- 
ning of  that  difficulty  which  the  farmer  still  experi- 
ences, the  distance  between  planting  and  harvest. 
The  muscular  and  varied  toil  connected  ordinarily 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  RURAL  ORGANIZATION          185 

with  fanning,  the  complexity  of  farm  work,  the 
farmer's  need  of  being  both  producer  and  seller, 
are  other  distinctive  experiences  that  issue  in 
psychic  traits.  Locality-influences  also  appear  in 
the  farmer's  life.  By  the  very  fact  that  he  tills 
the  soil,  he  is  bound  to  accept  a  greater  degree  of 
solitude  than  belongs  to  most  other  men.  He  lives 
in  his  workshop,  so  to  speak.  He  travels  great 
distances  over  the  same  area  in  the  course  of  the 
year.  The  farmer,  therefore,  not  because  he  is 
different  from  other  workers,  but  because  of  the 
nature  of  his  work  and  his  place  of  livelihood, 
accumulates  his  own  special  psychic  characteristics. 

The  progress  that  modern  psychology  has 
recently  made  in  its  understanding  of  the  working 
of  the  mind  has  been  largely  because  of  the  clearer 
knowledge  that  has  been  obtained  regarding  the 
human  instincts  and  the  psychic  compounds  that 
under  the  influence  of  social  experience  are  derived 
from  these  instincts.  Whether  it  functions  in 
country  or  city,  any  organization  to  be  successful 
must  pay  heed  to  this  knowledge.  The  psychol- 
ogy of  rural  organization  is  therefore  mainly  the 
application  to  the  field  of  organization  of  the  in- 
formation we  have  regarding  the  operation  of  the 
instincts  in  the  rural  environment. 

Any  person  interested  in  rural  organization 
must  consider  seriously  the  place  the  gregarious 
instinct  occupies  in  rural  life  and  the  ways  in  which 


1 86  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

it  influences  the  social  structure  of  the  rural  group. 
The  study  of  country  life  reveals  the  increasing 
importance  of  the  gregarious  attitude  in  modern 
life  by  showing  clearly  the  handicap  the  rural 
environment  carries  because  of  its  non-gregarious 
characteristics.  The  rural  sociologist  senses  this 
situation  as  no  one  else  can,  for  he  realizes  how 
largely  the  modern  gregarious  wants  hamper  the 
successful  functioning  of  country  life.  The  situa- 
tion, as  we  find  it  in  these  days,  emphasizes  the 
need  of  more  organization  and  better  organization 
in  the  country.  To  as  large  an  extent  as  possible 
it  is  most  necessary  that  the  farmers  find  in  their 
own  local  organizations  the  means  of  satisfying  to 
a  more  reasonable  degree  their  deep  and  natural 
desire  for  gregarious  experiences.  Organization  of 
course  awakens  and  stimulates  the  gregarious 
interests.  It  is  equally  true  that  the  gregarious 
instinct  furnishes  an  indispensable  basis  for  organ- 
ization. Any  organization  must  have  first  of  all, 
before  it  can  be  well  established,  a  fund  of  common 
interests,  the  result  of  the  association  of  persons 
who  share  a  common  experience.  It  is  the  gregari- 
ous instinct  primarily  that  draws  people  into 
association  and  holds  them  in  contact  until  a 
degree  of  common  sympathy  results. 

Occasionally  it  happens  that  individual  farmers 
have  for  so  long  suppressed  their  gregarious  tend- 
encies that  they  find  themselves  unable  naturally 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  RURAL  ORGANIZATION          187 

to  organize  with  their  fellows.  It  requires  some- 
times a  tremendous  economic  pressure  to  bring 
these  persons  temporarily  under  the  influence  of 
organization.  If  country  life  were  to  become  so 
destitute  of  organization  that  the  majority  of  the 
farmers  no  longer  felt  any  gregarious  hunger,  not 
only  would  organizations  become  impossible  in  the 
country,  but  the  farmer  would  be  excluded  from 
the  larger  part  of  modern  life.  Any  organization 
that  enters  the  country  must  assume  that  some  of 
the  persons  to  whom  it  attempts  to  minister  have 
lost  much  of  their  original  gregariousness  or  are 
suffering  because  they  feel  that  they  are  gregari- 
ously destitute.  The  second  group  will  welcome 
the  organization,  but  the  first  need  its  ministra- 
tion more.  Fortunately  the  gregarious  instinct  is 
generally  strong  enough  even  in  the  most  isolated 
sections  to  maintain  a  considerable  desire  for 
association  among  the  people  of  the  neighborhood 
or  locality.  Where  there  is  no  will  to  be  together, 
it  is  hopeless  to  expect  the  development  of  any 
pull- together  spirit. 

The  working  of  the  gregarious  instinct  teaches 
us  one  caution  which  unfortunately  has  not  always 
been  observed  by  workers  among  country  people. 
Organizations  cannot  be  developed  in  urban  offices 
by  people  steeped  in  urban  psychology,  working 
for  urban  objectives,  and  then  be  transferred  bodily 
into  country  sections  and  forced  upon  country 


1 88  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

people  without  a  high  percentage  of  failure,  even 
though  subsidized  from  the  urban  center  with 
money,  personnel,  and  enthusiasm.  The  organiza- 
tions under  such  circumstances  cannot  thrive.  In 
other  words,  we  must  permit  each  gregarious  group 
to  work  out  its  own  type  of  organization.  Genuine 
rural  statesmanship  requires  that  leadership  use 
its  skill  to  bring  country  people  together,  but  that 
it  abstain  from  coercing  the  organizations  that 
country  people  maintain  when  they  are  brought 
together.  This  lesson  is  particularly  difficult  for 
the  group-minded  leader  who  has  complete  confi- 
dence in  the  psychology  he  has  deduced  from  his 
urban  experience,  and  who  cannot  appreciate 
success  that  expresses  itself  contrary  to  his  expec- 
tations. It  remains  an  axiom,  however,  for  any 
rural  organization  that  it  must  measure  its  results 
not  by  what  it  does  for  the  farmer,  but  by  what  it 
gives  opportunity  for  the  farmer  to  do. 

At  this  point  we  discover  the  strategy  of  rural 
organization.  Rural  organization  must  provide  for 
local  autonomy  in  a  greater  degree  than  is  necessary 
for  organizations  that  draw  from  city  constit- 
uencies. There  must  be  in  the  organization  a 
sincere  attempt  to  develop  democratic  control. 
Local  leaders  must  be  given  a  real  voice  in  the 
policy  of  the  organization,  for  any  rural  enter- 
prise that  creates  mere  local  dummies  cannot 
m  aintain  itself  anywhere  in  the  country  wi  th  any 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  or  RURAL  ORGANIZATION          189 

vigor.  Experience  and  common  sense  enforce  the 
necessity  of  every  organization  that  tries  to  enter 
the  rural  field  recognizing  the  need  of  utilizing 
local  leadership  to  the  utmost. 

This  policy  of  making  the  largest  possible  use 
of  local  leadership  is  also  strengthened  by  the  con- 
sideration demanded  by  the  self-assertive  instinct. 
No  person  who  has  had  experience  in  movements 
for  country-life  betterment  needs  to  be  told  that 
rural  organization  is  largely  influenced  by  the  self- 
assertive  instinct.  This  instinct  flourishes  in  both 
the  country  and  the  city  organization,  and  it  would 
be  impossible  to  show  that  it  has  more  influence 
on  the  one  than  on  the  other.  However,  the  work- 
ing of  the  instinct  appears  more  clearly  on  the 
surface  in  the  rural  organization  because  of  the 
smaller  number  and  greater  intimacy  of  the  persons 
in  association;  and  when  the  instinct  is  not  under 
the  control  of  a  wholesome  community  discipline 
it  becomes  a  stumbling-block  in  the  way  of  success- 
ful rural  organization,  for  from  it  come  trivial 
hostilities,  unreasonable  prejudices  and  suspicions, 
and  even  bitter  feuds. 

In  so  far  as  any  organization  functions  in  the 
country,  however,  it  tends  to  eliminate  this  narrow 
spirit  of  hostility.  The  self-assertive  instinct  also 
shows  itself  in  the  spontaneous  suspicion  of  many 
country  people  toward  any  unfamiliar  or  outside 
organization.  It  would  seem  as  if  the  natural 


I  go  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

leaders  of  the  community  feared  a  loss  of  their 
power  through  the  incoming  organization.  All 
these  circumstances  create  a  very  serious  obstacle 
to  the  rural  organization.  It  must  use  in  each 
locality  the  leaders  already  in  existence,  or  develop 
new  ones.  This  means  that  it  finds  itself  drawn 
into  the  competitive  atmosphere  of  the  community. 
Its  career  may  hinge  upon  the  choice  of  local  leader- 
ship, and  there  may  be  no  opportunity  for  a  just 
or  logical  choice.  Potential  leadership  in  the 
organization  may  not  be  developed  because  of  the 
covetousness  of  those  who  have  had  in  times  past 
a  considerable  degree  of  power.  On  the  other 
hand,  this  instinct  like  all  others  can  be  socially 
controlled.  One  significant  purpose  of  rural  organ- 
ization is  to  teach  country  people  the  advantages  of 
expressing  self-assertion  in  wholesome  group  experi- 
ence. We  must  have  in  the  country  more  and  more 
a  higher  type  of  self-assertion.  This  can  come  only 
from  better  functioning  of  great  social  institutions. 
The  school,  for  instance,  must  profoundly  change 
its  entire  spirit.  It  must  look  upon  itself  as  a 
social  institution,  and  it  must  measure  its  success 
by  the  ability  of  its  graduates  to  share  wholesome 
social  experiences.  It  must  turn  its  back  upon  its 
present  standards,  and  not  permit  individual  dis- 
tinction or  any  other  form  of  individual  success  to 
seem  a  reasonable  measure  of  its  efficiency.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  church.  Unfortunately,  until 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  RURAL  ORGANIZATION          191 

of  late,  the  church  in  the  country  has  given  way 
to  the  line  of  least  resistance,  and  has  emphasized 
individual  attainment  to  a  much  greater  degree 
than  has  the  city  church.  It  is  the  country  church 
that  needs  to  preach  the  social  gospel.  Every 
institution  that  has  flourished  in  the  country  has 
been  guilty  too  often  of  stressing  individualistic 
motives.  In  spite  of  this,  however,  it  is  in  the 
country  that  democracy  can  most  successfully  be 
carried  forward.  The  members  of  the  small  com- 
munity are  naturally  in  contact  and  do  have  a 
real  interest  in  one  another.  This  provides  the 
basis  for  a  wholesome  social  life  when  once,  through 
education,  the  self-assertive  instinct  is  led  to  express 
itself  primarily  in  forms  of  behavior  that  conserve 
the  welfare  of  the  group  as  a  whole.  This  sub- 
limation of  self-assertion  is  just  now  one  of  the 
great  problems  of  civilization.  The  organization 
that  goes  into  the  country  to  exploit  the  self- 
regarding  instinct,  and  with  no  respect  for  the 
permanent  welfare  of  the  people  is,  however  strong 
and  flourishing  it  may  be,  an  enemy  of  progress, 
merely  adding  greater  social  burdens  to  a  people 
already  too  much  divided  by  their  trivial  interests 
and  unreasonable  animosities.  Its  program  is 
fundamentally  unsound. 

The  influence  of  fear  appears  in  rural  organi- 
zation. There  is  at  times,  as  has  been  stated,  an 
attitude  of  instinctive  hostility  on  the  part  of 


192  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

rural  folk  with  reference  to  new  projects  and 
unfamiliar  organizations.  This  is  due  to  a  suspi- 
cion which  at  bottom  is  rooted  in  the  fear  instinct. 
Much  has  been  experienced  by  farmers  in  their 
economic  life  to  encourage  this  attitude  of  fear  and 
suspicion.  In  some  sections  of  our  country  there 
is  much  more  timidity  on  the  part  of  farmers  than 
in  other  parts.  Isolation  increases  the  timidity; 
inexperience  with  business  ways  gives  opportunity 
for  the  fear  to  operate.  Any  specific  exploitation 
which  the  farmer  in  his  business  relations  may 
have  suffered  at  the  hands  of  middlemen  and 
other  representatives  of  city  business  tends  to 
give  vigor  to  the  instinctive  reaction  of  fear  when 
new  social  or  business  organizations  are  advocated. 
In  part  his  present  economic  situation  rests 
upon  a  substantial  fact  which  the  farmer  only 
partly  senses.  As  a  workman  and  as  a  capitalist 
he  is  less  organized  than  his  interests  demand. 
This  lack  of  organization  on  his  part  makes  it 
difficult,  even  impossible,  for  him  to  secure  his 
reasonable  share  of  economic  and  social  satisfac- 
tions, since  he  is  forced  into  competition  with  large 
bodies  highly  organized.  He  has  been  taught, 
particularly  by  the  daylight-saving  legislation,  how 
sensitive  his  government  is  to  group  pressure.  He 
knows  from  experience  that  urban  labor  or  urban 
capital  can  more  easily  unite  in  a  close  and  self- 
protective  organization  than  can  he.  This  fear 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  RURAL  ORGANIZATION          193 

that  he  may  be  sacrificed  by  government  policy 
because  of  his  lesser  strength  in  organization  as 
compared  with  urban  interests  is  making  him 
more  open  to  new  and  better  organization.  Rural 
statesmanship  should  take  advantage  of  this  situa- 
tion and  should  reveal  to  the  farmer  that  he  is 
hampered  not  only  in  his  economic  life,  but  also  in 
his  social  experiences,  by  his  lack  of  organization. 
In  this  way  the  farmer  will  learn  that  he  can  best 
protect  himself  and  can  best  satisfy  himself  socially 
by  co-operation  and  by  unity;  and  thus  putting 
aside  the  instinct  of  fear,  he  will  develop  wholesome 
social  confidence.  Organization  in  this  manner 
will  replace  a  defense  motive  with  a  positive,  con- 
structive attitude  to  the  great  advantage  of  the 
rural  community. 

Any  organization  that  attempts  to  make  head- 
way among  country  people  must  pay  due  regard 
to  the  influence  of  the  instinct  of  possession.  It 
is  the  business  of  any  organization  in  the  country 
frankly  to  recognize  the  instinctive  craving  for 
possession,  and  by  catering  to  it  to  gain  a  firm 
basis  for  popular  support.  The  community  organ- 
ization can  skilfully  transfer  much  of  this  desire  for 
possession  from  the  area  of  personal  ownership 
to  that  of  the  community.  Then  the  community 
in  a  peculiar  sense  becomes  the  possession  of  the 
farmer,  who  believes  himself  in  very  truth  a  part  of 
it.  Its  prosperity  becomes  his  prosperity;  its 


1 94  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

reputation  gives  him  a  sense  of  pride.  If  by  lack 
of  organization  or  by  lack  of  success  in  the  function- 
ing of  organizations  the  community  has  little  of 
which  to  boast,  the  farmer  must  necessarily  satisfy 
this  instinct  of  possession  with  things  that  belong 
to  him  and  his  family  exclusively.  Unless  the 
instinct  can  to  some  extent  be  lifted  up  to  the  level 
of  community  expression,  it  becomes  an  obstacle 
to  any  effort  to  bring  the  people  together.  This 
need  of  creating  a  sense  of  community  possession 
explains  the  advantage  in  any  rural  movement  of 
enlisting  the  people  in  some  concrete  physical 
improvement.  Through  the  eye  the  farmer  sees 
the  results  of  the  organization,  and  if  he  has  had 
part  in  the  movement,  has  a  consciousness  of 
personal  contribution  which  more  than  anything 
else  is  likely  to  feed  his  enthusiasm  for  still  greater 
community  progress.  City  dwellers  frequently 
feel  a  deep  sense  of  community  possession.  St. 
Paul  was  neither  the  first  nor  the  last  urbanite  to 
boast  of  his  citizenship.  But  the  actual  personal 
contribution  that  most  city  people  make  to  their 
community  must  necessarily  be  small.  The  man 
of  the  country,  in  comparison,  may  have  the  sense 
of  direct  and  important  contribution,  even  though 
he  be  only  an  average  citizen.  It  seems  strange 
that  rural  reform  has  not  more  often  fostered  this 
sense  of  community  possession.  Organizations 
enter  the  country  under  the  spell  of  urban  efficiency 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  RURAL  ORGANIZATION          195 

and  appeal  to  the  purely  selfish  individualistic 
interests  of  the  farmer.  Then  when  such  organiza- 
tions fail  because  individualism  goes  so  far  as  to 
forbid  a  common  program,  the  organizers  marvel 
at  the  narrow  interests  of  the  farmer.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  they  have  reaped  the  harvest  they  them- 
selves planted. 

Rural  organizations  do  well  to  keep  in  mind 
the  strength  of  the  parental  instinct  in  the  country. 
No  matter  what  the  nature  of  the  organization 
may  be,  it  should  pay  heed  to  the  parental  inter- 
ests of  country  people.  The  most  commercial  of 
organizations  should  include  in  its  program  some- 
thing of  advantage  to  the  children  and  young 
people.  There  should  always  be  some  appeal  to 
the  family  interest  as  such.  This  appeal  may  be 
as  impressive  as  one  more  directly  related  to  the 
personal  interests  of  the  adults.  This  fact  explains 
the  influence  that  has  been  exercised  in  practical 
rural  improvement  by  the  best  type  of  school 
teacher.  When  she  has  demonstrated  her  genuine 
interest  in  the  people,  especially  in  the  children,  and 
her  practical  judgment,  the  community  has  usually 
supported  her  work  with  enthusiasm  and  confi- 
dence. Her  position  is  one  of  power  because  she 
ministers  as  no  other  can  to  the  parental  interests 
of  the  community.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
parental  instinct  may  prove  the  undoing  of  a  rural- 
welfare  movement.  Here  it  is  that  an  organization 


196  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

may  easily  go  on  the  rocks.  Rural  community  life 
can  be  broken  into  fragments  by  an  unwholesome 
development  of  parental  instinct  as  quickly  as  in 
any  other  way.  When  a  poorly  organized  com- 
munity, living  on  a  low  level  of  social  thinking, 
enters  into  family  competition,  the  parental  instinct 
will  sweep  all  reasonableness  away  and  even  estab- 
lish feuds  that  will  endure  for  a  great  length  of 
time  and  terribly  injure  the  welfare  of  all  the 
people. 

The  organization  in  the  country  that  has  the 
greatest  responsibility  for  the  socializing  of  the 
parental  instinct  is  the  church.  It  can  interpret 
the  social  meaning  of  parenthood  with  an  appeal 
and  an  authority  not  equaled  by  any  other  institu- 
tion. Fortunately,  of  late  the  church  has  dis- 
covered how  large  an  asset  it  has  in  the  parental 
instinct,  and  is  becoming  increasingly  efficient  in 
using  parental  love  for  the  socializing  and  idealiz- 
ing of  life.  The  school  also,  especially  in  the  city, 
is  taking  very  seriously  its  vocational  and  social 
obligations.  In  the  effort  to  meet  present  social 
responsibilities,  modern  education,  both  in  its 
content  of  study  and  in  its  methods,  is  surely  being 
radically  changed.  The  rural  organization  that 
wishes  to  have  a  fund  of  common  interest  from 
which  it  can  draw  forth  vitality  will  in  its  policy 
in  every  way  possible  encourage  the  school  to 
function  as  a  social  institution.  The  organization 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  RURAL  ORGANIZATION          197 

will  realize  that  in  so  far  as  the  children  of  today 
are  led  into  social  attitudes,  to  that  extent  it  is 
sure  to  have  incoming  material  that  will  enable  it 
to  prosper. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  organization  has  a 
large  and  happy  role  to  play  in  the  immediate 
advancement  of  American  rural  civilization.  Prog- 
ress will  be  hindered,  however,  if  the  institutions 
that  enter  the  rural  field  do  not  function  in  sub- 
stantial harmony  with  the  rural  mind.  At  a  time 
when  so  many  social  organizations  have  awakened 
to  the  possibilities  of  service  in  the  rural  field  there 
is  need  of  caution.  Ambition  to  serve  may  easily 
pass  over  into  a  subtle  form  of  exploitation.  The 
policy  of  any  effort  looking  toward  rural  improve- 
ment must  be  directed  by  those  who  from  personal 
experience  appreciate  the  genius  of  rural  society. 
The  rural  field  cannot  without  serious  and  lasting 
injury  become  an  experimental  ground  for  the 
trying  out  of  alien  and  conflicting  programs. 
Rural  people  are  bound  to  be  wary  of  social 
programs  that  are  constructed  by  outsiders.  It  is 
well  that  they  are.  Any  substantial  undertaking 
must  enlist  local  support;  nowhere  are  there  such 
abundant  rural  resources  that  they  can  safely  be 
spent  without  the  best  possible  promise  of  success. 

President  Butterfield  has  given  wise  counsel  to 
those  organizations  that  are  ambitious  to  minister 
to  rural  need: 


198  THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 

Each  institution  should  have  a  program  composed  of  a 
series  of  definite  objectives,  together  with  lists  of  methods 
worth  trying  in  order  to  gain  these  objectives.  This 
program  will  vary  from  time  to  time,  will  be  different  in 
its  application  to  different  parts  of  the  country  and  even 
to  different  communities  in  the  same  state  or  county.  It 
cannot  be  a  hard  and  fast  outline  of  methods  for  the  local 
community,  but  it  ought  to  be  suggestive  and  helpful 
— devices  that  have  been  a  success.  A  so-called  program 
may  be  merely  a  piece  of  writing  which  anybody  with  a 
facile  pen  can  evolve.  A  real  program  is  hammered  out  of 
the  thought  and  experience  of  the  people  who  are  doing 
the  work,  and  has  the  advantage  of  keeping  before  them 
something  clear-cut  and  definite,  something  that  they  can 
come  back  to  every  little  while  and  check  up  in  order  to 
discover  whether  they  are  making  progress.1 

The  insistence  upon  a  cautious  and  mature 
program  on  the  part  of  those  institutions  that 
attempt  to  enlist  rural  support  does  not  of  course 
mean  that  those  already  in  the  field  are  justified 
in  a  "Hands  off!"  attitude  toward  newcomers. 
There  is  real  need  of  new  social  activities  in 
the  country.  In  any  case,  service  belongs  to  the 
institutions  that  are  best  fitted  to  render  it.  The 
point  is  that  a  desire  to  help  is,  in  itself,  insufficient 
credentials.  There  must  be  an  understanding  of 
the  psychic  problems  involved.  The  rural  field 
is  not  a  mere  duplicate  of  the  urban.  There 
are  some  essential  differences  that  must  receive 
recognition  hi  any  social  undertaking. 

1  Butterfield,  The  Partner  and  the  New  Day,  p.  127. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  RURAL  ORGANIZATION          199 

REFERENCES  ON  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  RURAL 
ORGANIZATION 

Butterfield,  K.  L.,  The  Farmer  and  the  New  Day,  pp.  84-211. 

New  York:  Macmillan,  1919. 
Douglass,  H.  B.,  The  Little  Town,  chap.  ix.    New  York: 

Macmillan,  1919. 
Gillette,  J.  M.,  Constructive  Rural  Sociology,  chaps,  xv,  xvi. 

New  York:  Macmillan,  1919. 
Groves,  E.  R.,  Rural  Problems  of  Today,  chap.  x.    New 

York:  Association  Press,  1918. 
Morgan,  E.  L.,  Mobilizing  the  Rural  Community.    Amherst, 

Mass. :  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College,  Extension 

Bulletin  No.  23,  September,  1918. 
Morse,  R.,  Fear  God  in  Your  Own  Village.    New  York: 

Holt,  1918. 
Rainwater,  C.  E.,  Community  Organization.    Monograph, 

Southern  California  Sociological  Society,  Los  Angeles, 

February,  1920. 
Sanderson,  D.,  "Democracy  and  Community  Organization," 

Publications    of    the    American    Sociological    Society, 

XIV,  83-93- 
Sims,  N.  L.,  The  Rural  Community,  pp.  826-916.    New 

York:  Century  Co.,  1920. 
,  "Rural  Socialization,"  Political  Science  Quarterly, 

March,  1920. 
Vogt,  P.  L.,  Introduction  to  Rural  Sociology,  chaps,  xiii,  xiv. 

New  York:  Appleton,  1917. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Acquisition,  193-94 

Adler,  A.,  69 

Anger  and  animals,  128-29 

Bulletins,  160-61 

Butterfield,  K.  L.,  quoted,  198 

Canadian  city  drift,  28 
Census  of  1920,  31 
Character  analysis,  172 
Children  and  fear,  111-16 
Church:   equipment,  170,  and 

recreation,      150-52;       and 

schools,  177-78 
City  drift,  24-43 
Civilization    and    agriculture, 

16-17 

Class  consciousness,  1 24 
Classification  of  interests,  4 
Collections,  138 
Competition,  74-75 
Conservatism,  141 
Co-operation,  148,  153754,  177 
Crowd,  54 
Cruelty,  114,  115 
Curiosity,  131-32 
Curtis,  H.  S.,  quoted,  100-101 

Dramatic  hunt,  17 

Edman,  I.,  quoted,  3 
European  city  drift,  24 
Exploitation  of  farmers,  125 

Family:  attitude  toward  agri- 
culture, 90;  competition, 
93-94;  feuds,  129-31 


Farm  journals,  161-62 
Farmers'  characteristics,  13 
Fear  instinct,  108-11 
Fear  and  organization,  117-18 
Federation  of  churches,  1 70 
Feeble-minded,  101 

Gillette,  J.  M.,  quoted,  30 
Gossip,  132-33 

Government    and    gregarious- 
ness,  53 

Governor  Eberhart,  43 
Gregarious  instinct,  46-55 
Gregarious  leader,  73 
Guinchard,  J.,  quoted,  26-27 

Haggard,  R.,  quoted,  26 
Housekeepers,  103 

Howitt,  W.,  quoted,  120-22 

• 

Illegitimacy,  101 
Individualism,  179,  191,  195 
Industrial  conflict,  1 24 
Influence  of  rural  church,  164- 

65 

Instincts,  number  of,  4 
Intellectual  isolation,  168-69 
Intellectual  value  of  play,  147, 

152 

James,  W.,  quoted,  108-9 

Land  hunger,  140-42 
Leadejship,  148.  173.  i? 6-77 
Leonard,  A.  G.,  quote's,  19 
Local  leaders,  80-82,  188-90 


203 


204 


THE  RURAL  MIND  AND  SOCIAL  WELFARE 


Loss  of  youth,  37 
Lowie,  R.  H.,  quoted,  no 

MacDougall,  J.,  quoted,  28 
McDougall,  William,  quoted, 

49-50,  86-87 

Merritt,  E.,  quoted,  33,  34-35 
Minister  and  science,  171-72 
Miser,  139-40 
Modern  industrialism,  24 
Mother  love,  86-87 

National  welfare,  viii 
Neolithic  epoch,  13 
New  England,  33,  37-38 

O'Brien,  145-46 

Organization,  181-82;  and 
fear,  191-93;  and  gregari- 
ousness,  185-88;  and  pa- 
rental instinct,  195;  and  self- 
assertion,  189-91 

Percentage  of  males,  33-34 
Perishable  values,  136-37 
Pity,  94-96 

Play,  144-52;  and  co-opera- 
tion, 148,  153-54;  and  social 
discipline,  148;  and  social 
health,  145;  and  social 
unity,  147;  and  work,  145, 
140-50;  lack  of,  148-49, 
152;  urban  imitation  in, 
155-57,  i?4 

Potential  leadership,  116,  190 
Precocious  courtship,  99 
Primitive  agriculture,  12-13 
Prize  contests,  77-78 
Propaganda,  52 
Psychological  era,  i 
Psychological  laws,  181-83 


Psychological  progress,  183 
Pugnacity  instinct,  127-28 

Race  friction,  118 

Reading,  157-60 

Recreational  policies,  155-56 

Ross,  E.  A.,  quoted,  36-38, 
147-48 

Rural  church  program,  175-76 

Rural  education,  63 

Rural  libraries,  160 

Rural  minister:  lack  of  pres- 
tige, 169;  salary,  165-67; 
training,  167-68 

Rural  psychology,  7,  8,  9,  183- 
85 

Rural  racial  type,  20-21 

Rural  statesmanship,  77 

Savage  agriculture,  12-20 

Schools  and  urban  viewpoint, 
57 

Scientific  attitude  of  farmers, 
133-34 

Second  Wisconsin  Country  Life 
Conference,  25 

Self-assertion,  67-85;  and  evo- 
lution, 70 

Sense  of  accomplishment,  136, 
138-39;  in  community  pro- 
jects, 137-38 

Sense  stimulation,  60-62 

Sex,  97,  98 

Social  diagnosis,  171,  177 

Socializing:  of  the  parental 
instinct,  196;  of  the  schools, 
178,  190,  196-97 

Social  nature  of  play,  146 

Social  sanity,  vii 

-Suggestion,  55-60 

Sweden,  26-27 


INDEX 


205 


Tragic  experiences,  122-23 
Trotter,  W.,  quoted,  47-48 

Urban     increase     in     United 

States,  28-31 
Urban  pride,  194 

Villager,  75-76 

Wage  earner's  discontent,  6r, 
83, 135 


War  and  city  dweller,  22 
Watson,  J.  E.,  quoted,  4,  5 
Williamson,    R.    W.,    quoted, 
18 

Wilson,  W.,  quoted,  105,  151- 

52 

Workmanship,  135-37,  194 
World- war,  50-51 
Wundt,  W.,  quoted,  105 


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